Yet they couldn’t change the picture and thus alter someone’s fate.ĭaniel McCoy points out that no one actually worshipped the Norns (2016: 75). Human sorceresses might be able to embellish this tapestry. The one that concerns us here is weaving. Different versions of the legends see them creating ‘fate’ in a variety of ways. The Norns also represent the idea of Fate, and correspond to the Three Fates of Greek mythology (who we’ll meet next week). ‘Norns weaving destiny’ by Arthur Rackham (1912) They represent Past, Present, and Future respectively (1999: 208). The first is Urdr, the second is Verdandi, and the third is Skuld. That said, the poem Völuspá claims there are three. They’re not gods, elves, dwarves or anything else. There doesn’t appear to be any set number of Norns, and they don’t fit into any ‘category’ of being. The Norns were the weavers of fate in Norse mythology. Given Hera was also goddess of marriage, you can see why she’d be an ideal deity to represent this kind of unity woven from conflict. Weaving cloth becomes a metaphor for unity, harmony, and peace itself. Scheid and Svenbro continue the political metaphor, with the “disorder” of the “raw wool replaced by an organized fabric, in which each fiber is in place” (2001: 12). They repeated the weaving every four years, and this new weaving represented a continuation of peace.

They liken the way that threads fall into place during weaving to the progress of peace talks. To Scheid and Svenbro, they negotiated peace so well “that only the collective weaving of a cloak for the statue of Hera at Olympia seemed adequate to commemmorate it” (2001: 11). These women also ran the Heraean games and managed the weaving of her robe.Ī statue of Hera at the Louvre Museum A noble woman was chosen from the sixteen cities in Elis to find a peace to peace.

The Pisans decided to abandon his destructive path and make peace with the Eleans. The practice dated to a period when the tyrannical ruler of Pisa died. While the games, called Heraea, took place, women wove a robe for Hera. John Scheid and Jesper Svenbro discuss a form of Olympic Games for “maidens” held at Hera’s temple (2001: 10). Weaving also comes into play around the goddess Hera, celebrated at Olympia. I wonder how Athena felt about such a slight against her great craft. Seeing it as “women’s work”, they take her at her word that she’s still working on it. Her advantage is that she knows the men have no clue about weaving. She manages to keep this going for three years until an idiotic maid betrays her. Penelope dutifully carried out her weaving by day…and unravelled her work by night, keeping the shroud unfinished. ‘Penelope and the Suitors’ by John William Waterhouse (1912)

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