Ananke (mythology)

Illustration for a Modern Edition of the work of Plato The Republic: Ananké and his daughters the Moiras.

In Greek mythology, Ananké or Anankaia, sometimes Ananque (in ancient Greek Ἀνάγκη Ananke or Ἀνάγκαιη Anankaie), was one of the primordial gods, the personification of inevitability, necessity, compulsion and inescapability. She is in essence the force of destiny, from whom no man or god can escape. In Roman mythology she was called Necessitas, and hence the translation of her as Necessity . In Orphic myths she can also be named as Adrastea ("the inescapable"). Ananké was rarely worshiped until the creation of the Orphic mystery religion; Pausanias tells us that on the acropolis of Corinth there was a sanctuary dedicated to Necessity and Force, the entry of which was forbidden to the uninitiated.

The Orphic texts, quoted in the mouth of Orpheus, tell how Ananké arose from nothing at the beginning of time, formed by herself as an incorporeal and serpentine being whose outstretched arms encompassed the entire universe. Since her appearance, Ananké was entwined with her companion, the personification of time Chrono, who are cited as "beings of a couple nature". It seems that in another fragment Ananké is identified with another primordial god, Tecmor. However Epicurus alleges that the world began as an egg and that Necessity and Time surrounded this egg composed of the four elements, and that from this strong constricting bond the egg split into two parts. The upper part of the egg, formed by fire and air, generated the "luminous air", the Ether, and also the "rarefied wind", identified with Chaos. The lower part, of heavier matter (earth and water), formed the Earth, and surrounding it on all sides was the Sea. Thus everything arose by the work of Time and Necessity, who remained eternally intertwined like the forces of destiny and time. time that surround the universe, guiding the rotation of the heavens and the endless passage of time. Both were far beyond the reach of the younger gods, whose fates they were said to control.

Family

Some versions interpret that Ananké arose by herself and others that she was born from the union between the Waters and the Earth. His natural consort was Time, with whom he engenders a triad, formed by Chaos, Ether and Erebus (like the three airs that make up the world); or else this triad is about Chaos, Ether and Eros, the luminous first-born (here with the identity of Phanes). Ananké, as a goddess who represents the inescapable force of destiny, is philosophically imagined as the mother of the Fates, who sing the things of becoming: Lachesis about the things that were, Atropos about those that are., but Clotho about those that have not yet happened.

Etymology

Outside the Orphic texts, his name also appears. The name Ananké is derived from the ancient Greek ἀνάγκη which means 'strength, necessity and protection'. Homer uses the word meaning necessity (αναγκαίη πολεμίζειν) to mean 'it is necessary to fight' and force (ἐξ ἀνάγκης) to mean 'by force'. In Ancient Greek literature, the word also means luck or fate (ανάγκη δαιμόνων, 'fate by demons or gods'). There is an old proverb that even the gods avoid facing the force of Necessity, and follow its precepts contentedly; it seems that these words were also attributed to Simonides of Ceos.