No man can escape his destiny

No man can escape his destiny, so the next inquiry should be how he may best live the time that he has to live.  Marcus Aurelius.  Meditations. Book 7.

Image: Late second-century Greek (Roman) mosaic from the House of Theseus (at Paphos Archaeological Park, Cyprus), showing the three Moirai: Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, standing behind Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Wolfgang Sauber.

Note: Fate referred to by Homer as moira was eventually personified by the ancient Greeks and Romans from the time of the poet Hesiod (8th century BCE) as three old women who spun the threads of human destiny.  Their names were Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), and Atropos (Inflexible). Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual’s moment of death). The Romans identified them as the Parcae, originally personifications of childbirth, with the three Greek Fates. The Roman goddesses were named Nona, Decuma, and Morta.