"I overcame fate, fate harkens to me"

Authors

• Jan Bergman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67006

Keywords:

Fate and fatalism -- Religious aspects -- Egyptian religion, Egypt, Gods and goddesses, Egyptian, Hellenism, Mythology, Egyptian

Abstract

”I overcome Fate (to heimarmenon); Fate harkens to me". In order to understand the tension in this proclamation of Isis, which forms the conclusion of the Isis aretalogy from Cyme, we must make a closer acquaintance with the two dramatis personae. With what right could Isis make a claim like this? How was to heimarmenon understood and experienced in the Hellenistic environment to which the Cyme hymn belongs?  This paper considers the Egyptian goddess and her relation to Fate, by pointing out a few `fatalistic traits' in Isis' character. But first we have to ask another question: How did the Egyptians understand Fate in general? What concepts did they use in order to define Fate and its effects? What was the relation between the god(s) and Fate?