Moirai ropemakers, graceful moirai or dreadful moirai? metamorphosis of the myth in the literary and artistic tradition

Abstract

In the literary tradition the Moirai distribute sadness or happiness to human beings at birth, which will last them a lifetime. They are merciless and determined. In their palace, faith/destiny is engraved on iron so it cannot be erased. Their usual representation is three old women with crowns made out of wool. But if for Homers the Moirai are real ropemakers, for Hesiodus they are daughters of the night, an affiliation which will be used by other mythographs. The activity of expansion in the second half of the 19th century among symbolist and decadent writers and also in arts in which several artists confuse Moirai with witches. A new tendency appears in the 20th century in literature as well as in arts. Moirai ropemakers, Moirai step-mothers, Moirai lovers, Moirai cosmic, Moirai witches, goddesses of beauty or revenge, those are variations and different interpretations of the myth which didn’t stop to evolve in time. The study of illustrations, engravings, paintings and sarcophagi are as interesting as the literary texts. Not only they enrich the myth but they also transform and immortalize it. ropemaking constitutes a recurrence of the myth which will be repeated in literary and artistic tradition as a symbol of the goddesses of destiny. The myth of the ropemakers undergoes a real