regarded as the goddess of good luck only, who brings
blessings to man, and not, as with the Greeks, as the personification of
the fluctuations of fortune.
In addition to Fortuna, the Romans worshipped Felicitas as the giver of
positive good fortune.
ANANKE (NECESSITAS).
As Ananke, Tyche assumes quite another character, and becomes the
embodiment of those immutable laws of nature, by which certain causes
produce certain inevitable results.
In a statue of this divinity at Athens she was represented with hands of
bronze, and surrounded with nails and hammers. The hands of bronze probably
indicated the irresistible power of the inevitable, and the hammer and
chains the fetters which she forged for man.
Ananke was worshipped in Rome under the name of Necessitas.
{149}
KER.
In addition to the Moirae, who presided over the life of mortals, there was
another divinity, called Ker, appointed for each human being at the moment
of his birth. The Ker belonging to an individual was believed to develop
with his growth, either for good or evil; and when the ultimate fate of a
mortal was about to be decided, his Ker was weighed in the balance, and,
according to the preponderance of its worth or worthlessness, life or death
was awarded to the human being in question. It becomes evident, therefore,
that according to the belief of the early Greeks, each individual had it in
his power, to a certain extent, to shorten or prolong his own existence.
The Keres, who are frequently mentioned by Homer, were the goddesses who
delighted in the slaughter of the battle-field.
ATE.
Ate, the daughter of Zeus and Eris, was a divinity who delighted in evil.
Having instigated Hera to deprive Heracles of his birthright, her father
seized her by the hair of her head, and hurled her from Olympus, forbidding
her, under the most solemn imprecations, ever to return. Henceforth she
wandered among mankind, sowing dissension, working mischief, and luring men
to all actions inimical to their welfare and happiness. Hence, when a
reconciliation took place between friends who had quarrelled, Ate was
blamed as the original cause of disagreement.
MOMUS.
Momus, the son of Nyx, was the god of raillery and ridicule, who delighted
to criticise, with bitter sarcasm, the actions of gods and men, and
contrived to discover in all things some defect or blemish. Thus when
Prometheus created the first man, Momus considered his work incomplete
becaus
|