“Ananke” by unknown sculptor, Turkiye
“Blessed Ananke , grand weaver of the tapestry, mother of Moria Krataia, supreme keeper of fate. One who in their love with blessed Chronos created the Orphic egg. May all mortals and gods live in your will.”
Governess of fate and conceiver of the world, Ananke encompasses the active matters of the world. According to Orphic mythology, she was created by Aion to dwell in the 7th plane, and separated the earth (Gaia) from the air (Aether) with Chronos (time). The two of them continue to move the world and hold it in balance as it wanders through the Void.
Ananke’s domain of cosmogonic power is quite grand, consisting of rule over the fate of all, even gods; she is fate, connection, necessity, circumstance, compulsion, evolution, and the mother of the Moirai (Fates). She was worshipped most prevalently in ancient Corinth, where her altars were shared with goddess Bia (Force, strength; enforcer of Zeus).
Sometimes, Ananke is identified with epithet Aphrodite Urania; deity of celestial, divine love - to differentiate from the connotations of Aphrodite Pandemos, love between people. Other epithets include her Roman counterpart, Necessitas; her aspects as leader of fates (Moiregetes), wind (Anemos) weave (hyphaino), serpent of eternity (Ouroboros), that which must be (Chre), and the self-begotten (Autophues).
*"The sense of the serpent in you, Ananke, / And your averted stride / Add nothing to the horror of the frost / That glistens on your face and hair."
Supreme weaver Ananke’s symbols, along with the aspects that are associated with her and her domains, have been gathered below from across online sources.
Though there is proof that she was honoured once in Corinth, there is severely limited knowledge about the ways in which powerful Ananke was worshipped in antiquity, much like other pre-Primordials. As such, modern worship of her relies on association and the filling of these gaps - she can be honoured effectively nonetheless as an ouranic deity.