Spinning fate myth fairytale – What are we interested in this post? – In the traces of pagan concepts about spending a lifetime mortal and immortal!

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Specifically, the motive of spinning the thread of each individual’s life expresses man’s belief in fate. The Moiras of the Greek Parthenon, are first mentioned as competent beings. But my impression is a painted ancient tomb, an archaeological find from the village of Beška in Srem. I will continue with examples of artistic sources from this artistically presented scene that convincingly explain the inexplicable. The pagan concept of Destiny will continue to exist. This scheme continues to spread throughout the Christian world. Previously with the early Christian scene of the Nativity of the Virgin from Syrian painting. Fairies of fate become functional characters in fairy tales since the 18th century. Thus, apart from medieval romantic novels fairy tales are a completely new genre of literature for children.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Greek Moiras or Roman Parks determine the fate of mortals and gods

People are always looking for answers to the questions, of where we come from. Where we are going, and whether our life is a predetermined path or we manage it ourselves. In women’s hands, before our eyes, the transformation of fiber, primordial matter, takes place. The loose fiber is stretched, straightened, and spun into thread and wound until the spindle swells with yarn. A metaphor about life itself could emerge from this circular process. The matrix according to which a person is born lives a given destiny, and dies. How could one imagine the inexplicable if not through the sight of supernatural beings? As the embodiment of this creation lies in their hands.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – The Thread of Life

Generally, Greek mythology summarizes the total symbolism of life in a textile thread. From the beginning of the thread (birth), the spinning and winding on the spindle (life flow), and the cutting of the thread (inevitable death).

Spinning Moira’s thread expresses the dual aspect of life. The necessity of moving from birth to death shows the uncertainty and impotence of being. But the necessity of death lies in the necessity of life. The spinning reminds us that life passes. The yarn flows in the hands of the judges. Clotho spins the thread of life, her sister Laheza rewinds the thread directing the path of life, and Atropa, at the appointed time, cuts the thread of life.

Among ancient Romans, the Parcae (singular, Parca) were equivalent to Greek the Moirai. Nona has the role of Cloto, then Decima measures as Lahesis does, while Morta determines the manner and time of death as Atropos.

The Fates Spinning the Destiny to Marie de Medici by Peter Paul Rubens, cycle To the Glory of a Queen of France

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Moiras at the Greek Parthenon and their relations to Zeus

Moira is well known in the myths of the Greek Parthenon. Homer only mentions Aisa or Moira. In Delphi, were two Moiras as deities of the duration of life limited by the points of birth and death. Hesiod mentions three Moiras, as Ovid too, but all three spinners. Later, that role is on Clotho. This trinity governs mortal life and the cosmic order of the mortal and immortal worlds. Finally, the Moiras symbolize the overall chain of causation. They attend every birth and death.

Even Zeus himself could not influence their decisions. So, he gave up Nymph Thetis, whom he wanted as a wife, because of Moirai’s decision for her son to surpass his father. In the Trojan War, Zeus stayed powerless knowing that his son Sarpedon would die at the hands of Patroclus. He could not change the course of fate to save him. But, on the long side, there was harmony between the mutual actions of Zeus and the judges. Therefore, they sided with him in the rebellion of the giants against the Olympians.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Traces of belief in fate in artistic sources

Despite the Christian authorities’ suppressing pagan beliefs, many persistently transformed and stood alive. Thus, the motif of fate survived as a commonplace in modern speech. In the sayings “it is fate” and “there is no death until the day of judgment” and so on. In traditional culture, for a newborn child, the family expects the demons of fate with fear and in the hope that the baby will have a happy life. So surely, ancient beliefs are transmitted through oral traditions, and myths have survived for centuries.

However, in fine art, we find numerous visual representations of content. That’s because artworks are a suggestive medium for accepting a mythical story. While the oral tradition is the source of myth writers, suggestive art forms create visions of mythical actions and personalities.

The idea of ​​predestination and its representation has evolved in religious and secular art. Pagan traces are common features of the Greek Moirai, the Roman Parkas, and the northern Norns. Thus, similar beliefs are common in visual art phenomena. Firstly, Kloto has attributes: distaff, thread, and spindle.

The power and mystery surrounding the mythical women make them a constant inspiration for various works of art. However, character models vary depending on the medium. For example, in fine art, the subjects are most often beautiful women in works with stylistic features of the period. Fate in literature is often dark, old, and ugly, mostly with evil intentions. The exception is the youngest, she always moderates her sisters’ judgment. Following the need for printing literature arose the art genre of text illustration.

Three Fates, fresco artwork from an ancient tomb, Beška, Srem, 4th Century

The installation of tomb findings with frescoes from the period between polytheism and early Christianity is in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Vojvodina, where you should irresistible stop. The timeless idea of ​​birth, earthly life, and death fascinates me. But, not only that, it also hints at the afterlife that awaits the deceased.

So, in our area, we read the symbolism of life and human duration. In the classic arrangement of pictorial presentations in front are the characters of a buried married couple. To the east is a fresco of three judges in the moment of introduction to the afterlife. We note that Chthonic goddesses are with halos, which confirm the pagan origin of this Christian symbol of holiness. On the sides are scenes of the abundance that filled the earthly life of the deceased and hints of the afterlife.

Clotho finishes the spinning, Lachesis measures, and Atropos decrees the death

Spinning fate myth fairytale – The birth of the Virgin Mary in sacred painting of the Byzantine canon

On the frescoes and icons of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, there is a distinct trace of the ancient myth about fate. The personification of moiras is in the figure of a woman next to a baby born, with a distaff and a spindle. The white wool as a vital substance on the distaff is a holly vision of the birth of the son of God. At the time of birth, the thread on the spindle has just begun. Christianity accepts one goddess, as very early in Greek mythology. This woman has an important role in the Nativity, as sitting or standing next to the cradle.

Such is the scene with the image of the character next to the cradle spinning the happy white thread of the Virgin’s life. An intimate inserted ambient expresses an idea in the composition. Nativity of the Virgin is a fresco in the Church of the Virgin Perivlepta in Ohrid. Fresco painting dates from the end of the 13th century. The Fate is sitting while spinning near the cradle of the Virgin Mary. In this scene, the distaff is static, standing upright on the stand with wool fiber on the top. It is the tool for working with linen and tow, which originates from the East, and arrived via the ways of painting of Byzantine schemes.

Nativity of the Virgin, the Church of Our Lady of Odigitria in the Patriarchate of Peć

In a similar narrative of Nativity of the Virgin, the baby and the Fate are in front of a brick partition, the middle zone of the south wall of the nave in the Church of Our Lady of Odigitria in the Patriarchate of Peć.

Nativity of the Holy Virgin, an icon from Šišatovac monastery, Srem, 16th century

Many aesthetes consider this icon the Birth of the Virgin Mary, from the Šišatovac monastery, among the most beautiful Serbian Medieval paintings. Separate, lower right, in the corner cassette, a caring Spinner spins the life thread of the Holy Virgin. As in the previous examples, the fiber is white wool, and the thread of life has just begun on the hanging spindle.

The Fate in the Annunciation of St. Anna, Chapel of the Ascension in Padua, 1304-1306.

Giotto di Bondone 1266-1337, herald of the Renaissance, developed a new style in Italian art. He introduced spatial perspective and realistic characters in natural positions. He relies on ancient models, except for the Annunciation to Anna Joachim’s wife. In the Cycle about the life of Joachim, in the Chapel of the Transfiguration in Padua, 1304-1306. year retains the motif of the female subject from the Byzantine scheme of the Nativity of the Virgin. While Anna prays for childbirth, the angel at the window announces that she will conceive and give birth to a child named Maria. In the lobby is a woman in white clothes, an ancient figure of a judge. She is sitting and spins from white wool. The distaff is at her waist while the Fate spins the blessed thread of life to the Mother of God.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – The Triumph of Death or Moiras in the Flemish tapestry based on Petrarch’s poem I Trionfi

In late medieval art, the spinning fate myth motif was endlessly varied. It was especially welcome before the schism between Catholics and Protestants in Western Europe. I came across a thematic series of six tapestries inspired by Francesco Petrarca’s poem Triumph when searching for funds, the Victoria and Albert Museum cares. It was woven in Brussels for the court of King Henry VIII from 1500 to 1520. Two are interesting to us. The first is the monumental (446×638 cm) Triumph of Death over Chastity, Brussels, 1500-1510.

Above is, a little to the right in the composition, the scene of Moirai in a luxurious carriage. Atropa sits on the throne, and her sisters are below, all in the middle of the corpses on the battlefield. And at their feet is the lifeless body of Chastity. The inscription is that no matter how chaste and completely virtuous a person is, Fate will cut the thread of his life. Because, in the end, neither the king nor the pope can escape death.

The Three Moiras, or Triumph of Death

But the second smaller one (305×259 cm) with a brutal allegorical interpretation exudes the spirit of the new times. The Three Moiras, or Triumph of Death, celebrate over the fallen body the personification of innocence. The dying moment of Chastity means an act of female initiation. Atropos broke the thread, and two of them, except Clotho, stepped on the body of the fallen purity. A commentary accompanies the work on the causality of life and death. But the point is that a new life is impossible without losing Chastity.

The tapestries are the work of Flemish weavers in Brussels. The material is wool with silk effects. The second characterizes the background of the millefiori style, which I wrote about earlier. The entire Triumph cycle originates from Petrarch’s same-name poem, composed according to a series of allegoric visions on the most important subjects. In his works, Petrarch combined ancient and Catholic motifs into peculiar mixtures that spread along the paths of the Renaissance. Thus, among other classical elements, the motif of the Three Fates reached both the sacred and the profane art of Western Europe.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Motifs of destiny in different cultural contexts

I have mentioned the idea of destiny as an eternal inspiration for artists. The accompanying controversies make it a topic in everyday life, literature, science, and contemporary esoteric practice, far distant from Christian teaching.
Mythological symbolism is among the crucial elements in the creation of fairy tales, as one of the later literary genres intended for children. Precisely, the meanings of thread, the act of spinning with tools, and their rich symbolism.

Although defined since the 18th century, the roots of the fairy tale lie in traditions dating back to ancient civilizations. Spinning, distaffs, and spindles are common means of indirect communication. A girl’s act of receiving a spinning tool means a promise. A hard-working woman is a spinner, inseparable from her distaff. A hand prick on a spindle means bleeding and the end of childhood. The unwinding of the thread and the ball of yarn is the mark of the trail. Thus, spinning motifs in fairy tales in collective memory are primarily metaphors of fate, the thread of life, and the female principle.

The Fate myth in the story of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty lasts from her appearance in Perceforest, between 1330 and 1344. A collection of parts of the novel about Alexander the Great, the history of the Romans, and medieval legends. There is also The Tale of Troilus and Zelandine, the first written version of Sleeping Beauty. In the Perceforest story lie the seeds of Sleeping Beauty as we know it. An angered supernatural woman; curses the baby for her parents`s misdeeds; a finger pricked while spinning; a deep sleep; a high tower; and a sexual encounter in sleep. After repeating a similar story for centuries, the modern version is simple. The supernatural woman curses the newborn, pricks the spindle, and is saved by the prince`s kiss.

Perceforest, Gianbattista Basile, The Sun, the Moon, and Thalia

According to the scheme from Perceforest, Gianbattista Basile wrote The Sun, the Moon, and Thalia as the fifth pastime on the 5th day of Pentameron, 1636. The name hints at the connection of Zeus with Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis (god of the sun and goddess of the moon). The content also matches ancient myths including Moira as a regular participant in the plot.

During his narratives at the parties of Louis XIV, the academician Charles Perrault added the insulted villa and the hundred-year dream. Therefore, many interpret the consequence of the curse as an external quiescence during puberty. Literary theorists consider Sleeping Beauty as a story about an adolescent girl taking all the necessary steps for a girl to become a woman.

Number of Fairies at various storytelling

The Fairies are in different magical numbers, telling various stories. Firstly, there are three in The Sun, Moon, and Talia, then seven in Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, and thirteen in Brothers Grimm’s Little Briar-Rose. In each of the cases, one Fate is vindictive and predicts death. But in the end, the youngest mitigates the death judgment into a dream from which a handsome prince will wake her.

Various contemporary interpretations of Sleeping Beauty or The Thorn Rose originate in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale published in 1812.

Spinning fate myth fairytale – Until, the Sleeping Beauty, an animated musical fantasy film by Walt Disney Productions

Dear Readers,

I hope for future much more comprehensive thinking about these subjects. The concepts I mentioned here are familiar in contemporary visual arts and literature, many are in everyday speech. But, do we recognize Primordial layers among phrases in our Modernity?

With best wishes and respect, Branka on Textiles