Moira

In Homer, as already noted in Chapter One, we meet the word νέμω (nemō) and its cognates and composites in a wide variety of uses. Here I turn to examine the relation between nemein and what is held to be its ancient line of use as a ‘distribution- sharing’, a ‘dispensing of one's portion’, or a ‘lot’. In the sense of an ‘allotment of portions’, we meet nemein used, on occasion in close proximity to, though not identically with, μοίρα (moira). This occurs, for instance, in Od. 14.436, θῆκϵν ἐπϵυζάμϵνος, τὰς δ’ ἄλλας νϵῖμϵν [neimen] ἑκάστῳ·, where the act of distributing portions of meat in a feast is, a few verses earlier, preceded by the use of the terms to divide/ share, διηνϵκέϵσσι (diēnekeessi, 437) and διϵμοιρᾶτο δαΐζων (diemoirato daizōn, 434). What is the relation between nomos and moira? Emmanuel Laroche has suggested that moira is essentially a ‘division’, while nomos in its primary Homeric sense is a ‘distribution’, proposing that, while the two terms are connected in the sphere of such acts, they are of separate semantic lines (1949: 8). Yet the notion that a sense of ‘distribution’ remains closely associated with moira is a contention that merits further investigation. An early or late (depending on the dating of the Orphic Hymns) attestation of the possible relation is provided in the Hymn to Moirai [Kern] where, at 10, the Moirai are linked to the ancient nómos (νόμου ὠ γυγίου), as well as to eunomia (ϵὐ νόμου άρχῆς, eu nómou archēs).

According to the inspired approach by Francis M. Cornford ([1912] 1957) nomos was, in fact, ‘prefigured’ in archaic thought in the impersonal power of μοίρα (moira), and it is still worth engaging with this hypothesis in some more detail.