7. Μοῖρα, like αἶσα, may be the embodied will, decree, or dispensation of the gods. Thus we have μοῖρα θεοῦ, Od. xi. 292, where θεὸς is either Jupiter or possibly Apollo: and μοῖρα θεῶν, Od. iii. 269, and xxii. 413. Now the names θεὸς and θεοὶ seem to be higher with Homer than any mythological name. They are his most solemn forms for the expression of the idea of deity. Thus it is remarkable that he never attaches μοῖρα directly to any Olympian person. This testifies to its signifying something larger than is conveyed by αἶσα. But it also seems to indicate that, even if it were capable of being placed in antagonism to the will of one of the mythological persons, into whose forms theistic ideas had passed by degeneracy, yet it was not conceived as opposite to or separate from the divine principle, but rather as a power associated with it.
8. Though in general μοῖρα means the thing ordained without reference to moral ideas, yet it is not always so. Μόρσιμος ordinarily means destined, while αἴσιμος means right. But the ideas of right and might were not yet wholly parted. In Od. xxii. 413 it is plain that μοῖρα θεῶν, pronounced by Ulysses over the Suitors, contains a moral element: for he goes on to say, οὔτινα γὰρ τίεσκον κ.τ.λ.: and so Eurymachus, when he means to acknowledge that the death of Antinous was morally just, says,
νῦν δ’ ὁ μὲν ἐν μοίρῃ πέφαται[551].
The presence of the moral element in this word is entirely adverse to the theory, that it was used in the sense of fatalism. Power apart from a personal deity has been conceived by the human mind: but moral power, I think, in such a state of severalty, has never been made the subject of serious speculation.
9. Μοῖρα has yet another sense, that of κοσμὸς, order. The force of the term κατὰ μοῖραν is generally ‘with propriety,’ while κατ’ αἶσαν is ‘with right.’
Thus in Il. xix. 256 the Greeks sit still, κατὰ μοῖραν, in order to hear Agamemnon: and we have an instance of κατὰ μοῖραν meaning ‘with propriety’ in Il. x. 169. Here Nestor has been chidden by Diomed, not for a moral offence, but for over-activity: and he replies,
ναὶ δὴ ταῦτά γε πάντα, φίλος, κατὰ μοῖραν ἔειπες.
He could not here have said κατ’ αἶσαν.
Under the form of μόρος.
Lastly, we come to the word μόρος. There are several shades of distinction between it and μοῖρα.