Heimarmene or Himarmene (; ) is a
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
and
being
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one do ...
of
fate
Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predeterminism, predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often used interchangeably, the words wiktionary ...
/
destiny
Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often used interchangeably, the words ''fate'' and ''destiny'' ...
in
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
(in particular, the orderly succession of cause and effect, or rather, the fate of the universe as a whole, as opposed to the destinies of individual people). She belongs to a family of similar beings of destiny and fate, which have given us various modern concepts (such as
Aesa,
Moira,
Moros
In Greek mythology, Moros /ˈmɔːrɒs/ or Morus /ˈmɔːrəs/ (Ancient Greek: Μόρος means 'doom, fate') is the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the abi ...
,
Ananke
In ancient Greek religion, Ananke (; ), from the common noun ("force, constraint, necessity"), is the Orphic personification of inevitability, compulsion, and necessity. She is customarily depicted as holding a spindle. One of the Greek pr ...
,
Adrasteia and
Pepromene).
Etymology
Heimarmene's name is an
ontological
Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...
description of how she was seen. It is speculated to be a
participial form of the Greek verb (''meiresthai'', meaning "to receive as one's lot"), which is derived from the same
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
as Moira ("fate"). It is likely that both are correct.
Other uses
The term "Heimarmene" (personified or not) is also widely used in the Greek
Stoic tradition, the
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...
religion (such as in the ''
Pistis Sophia'' manuscript), and other obscure religious sects.
External links
*
*
Greek and Roman religion: a source bookPhysics of the Stoics, by Samuel SamburskyIn works of Josephus
Greek goddesses
Personifications in Greek mythology
Time and fate goddesses
{{Greek-deity-stub