#moros deity

[chthonioi]

Epithets of Moros

𓍯 Ὀλέθρος, Olethros — destruction, doom

𓍯 Πανώλεθρος, Panôlethros — all-destroying

𓍯 Ἀτέρμων, Atermōn — unending, inexorable

𓍯 Μοιραγέτης, Moiragetes — guide of the Fates

𓍯 Σιγήριος, Sigērios — silent one

𓍯 Χθόνιος, Chthonios — of the Underworld

[sleepnowmychild]

I wish we knew more about Moros.

I get he’s the personification of an abstract concept - doom, and it’s hard to really pin something like that down. Doom comes in so many different forms. Not just death, but demise, suffering, bad luck etc. but I find it kind of interesting we know a fair amount about Thanatos, but not Moros. Yes, death is a bit easier to understand since you can physically see someone die and go through the burial/cremation etc and funeral process. But he and Moros are so overlapping, dying IS meeting your doom, even if it’s a peaceful one.

We have practically nothing on him. No ancient art, barely any texts, no known temples or shrines etc. it’s true that some feared even speaking the name of Cthonic gods, fearing it’ll invoke them and invite the doom into their lives. But man, that means we have so little information from the ancients. They just didn’t write anything down out of fear of invoking it.

But just like death, doom is something unavoidable at times. Part of life. Even if it’s not something absolutely life shattering, we all experience doom in smaller ways. Being doomed to fail at something for reasons out of your hands, knowing time will take its course and eventually things will break down. And while you do have to be mindful of engaging with darker topics for your own mental health, you can’t ignore and avoid all of it. You have to acknowledge the darker parts of life sometimes.

So yeah, I wish we knew more about Moros.

[thedansemacabres]

Moros is a man’s appointed death; Ker, the fate which overtakes him on the battlefield, and Thanatos, the state Ker leaves you in. Or, in other words, when the Moirai see fit, Ker gets hold of you, and Thanatos is the result.

— Personification in the Greek World From Antiquity to Byzantium, Edited by Emma Stafford and Judith Herrin

[chthonioi]

"Nor yet might we surrender you from these seats of sanctuary, and bring upon ourselves the dire, abiding vengeance of the all-destroying god Moros, who, even in Haides, does not set his victim free."

— Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 412 ff

art by @retiredpeach