irae are henceforth the special presiding deities over
the life and death of mortals.

The Moirae are represented by the poets as stern, inexorable female
divinities, aged, hideous, and also lame, which is evidently meant to
indicate the slow and halting march of destiny, which they controlled.
Painters and sculptors, on the other hand, depicted them as beautiful
maidens of a grave but kindly aspect.

There is a charming representation of Lachesis, which depicts her in all
the grace of youth and beauty. She is sitting spinning, and at her feet lie
two masks, one comic, the other tragic, as though to convey the idea, that,
to a divinity of fate, the brightest and saddest scenes of earthly
existence are alike indifferent, and that she quietly and steadily pursues
her occupation, regardless of human weal or woe.

When represented at the feet of Aides in the lower world they are clad in
dark robes; but when they appear in Olympus they wear bright garments,
bespangled with stars, and are seated on radiant thrones, with crowns on
their heads.

It was considered the function of the Moirae to indicate to the Furies the
precise torture which the wicked should undergo for their crimes.

They were regarded as prophetic divinities, and had sanctuaries in many
parts of Greece.

The Moirae are mentioned as assisting the Charites to conduct Persephone to
the upper world at her periodical {141} reunion with her mother Demeter.
They also appear in company with Eileithyia, goddess of birth.

NEMESIS.

Nemesis, the daughter of Nyx, represents that power which adjusts the
balance of human affairs, by awarding to each individual the fate which his
actions deserve. She rewards, humble, unacknowledged merit, punishes crime,
deprives the worthless of undeserved good fortune, humiliates the proud and
overbearing, and visits all evil on the wrong-doer; thus maintaining that
proper balance of things, which the Greeks recognized as a necessary
condition of all civilized life. But though Nemesis, in her original
character, was the distributor of rewards as well as punishments, the world
was so full of sin, that she found but little occupation in her first
capacity, and hence became finally regarded as the avenging goddess only.

We have seen a striking instance of the manner in which this divinity
punishes the proud and arrogant in the history of Niobe. Apollo and Artemis
were merely the instruments for avenging the insult offered to their