Comments on: Fateful Questions

By: Steph

Steph — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:17:16 +0000

Bah. REread, Steph, reread.

“Every fictional account that I am personally familiar with..”

By: Miss Lynx

Miss Lynx — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:41:38 +0000

Not to be a mythology pedant but the maiden/mother/crone thing isn’t Celtic. It’s largely a modern concept, originated by Robert Graves and then popularized via neopaganism. I think Graves actually based the idea on Artemis, Selene and Hecate in Greek mythology, but it’s been a while since I read The White Goddess, so I don’t recall exactly. In any event, the idea that it’s some kind of universal is pretty much his own notion. But the image evidently appealed to enough people to become hugely popular, even if it’s not actually anything ancient.

By: Steph

Steph — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:17:09 +0000

Thank ye much, AE, for the info.

At first I was going to point out that Piers Anthony uses the Maiden, Mother, Crone archetype in his Incarnations series. He has them as ‘aspects’ of Fate. Three beings, one body, three physical appearances. Then I realized that I’m a dork and probably shouldn’t be pointing that out with any real zeal.

I also realized every fictional account of Fate or the Fates places the same Maiden, Mother, Crone spin on them, so I went with the general rather than specific.

Note to self: Beg, borrow, steal, as a last resort, buy – just get hands on The Sandman.

By: AE

AE — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:15:32 +0000

@Steph – In classical mythology, they are sisters. Their parentage varies a lot but it’s generally held that they are the daughters of Nyx (Night).

@Steph & Lysaea – A lot of modern fiction deliberately conflates the Celtic triple with the Greco-Roman Fates, the Nordic Norns, and so on. I don’t know if he started it, but Neil Gaiman deserves a lot of credit for popularizing it by having a “single” triple goddess character that showed up throughout The Sandman, originally embodied as DC’s “three witches” horror comic hosts from the era when such things were popular. I chose to use it here because it gives the three a handy way to have them speak familiarly among themselves and creates the dynamic I wanted with the young one saying “the darnedest things” to her elders.

By: sakuragirl

sakuragirl — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:50:43 +0000

Wonderful

By: Steph

Steph — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:27:52 +0000

Admittedly, while I’ve never seen a ‘classical’ representation of the Fates, most of what I’ve read in fiction portrays them fairly close to this. I’ve not seen them related this way, but I do usually see them as Maiden, Mother, Crone.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? The beginning, the middle, the end? It’s a logical way to represent them and tell them apart at a quick glance.

By: Lysaea

Lysaea — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:12:42 +0000

A joining of myths – the maiden, mother, and crone of the Celts; and the fates of Greek and Roman times? At least that is how it appears to me. I like it – they are usually portrayed as all the same age, but this is more interesting