Time and fate deities in popular culture

This article presents some of the more notable appearances of the Moirai and other time and fate deities in popular culture.

Aeternitas
Aeternitas is a Roman personification of eternity.

*There is a gothic metal band called Aeternitas

Ananke
Ananke is given in some sources as the mother of the Moirae. Together, they have been discussed in Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture as follows:
If one exceeds one’s moira, one’s fate in life, the Furies strike with a vengeance in order to push the deviants back into line. Those who do not fit the designs of evolution are wiped painfully yet unceremoniously out of history. Suffering and history are true phenomena, yet pain is also instrumental in jostling man out of his complacency in his demiurgal body and his fear of eternity (death). Man’s revolt against his demiurgal ananke and moira is thus prompted by pain, and some suffering (though not too much) is also necessary for revelation and creativity.

* When writing the screenplay for Star Wars, George Lucas adapted the name Ananke for the character Anakin Skywalker.

Janus
Janus has appeared in many aspects of popular culture.

* 'The Secret Sharer' by Joseph Conrad exemplifies the Janus motif, with the duplicity of the young Captain and the fugitive stowaway. This can also relate to a doppelganger motif.

* Mrs. Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf in 1923 is reputed to bear some relation to Janus - like traits.

*Towards the end of the original version of The Gunslinger, the first Dark Tower novel by Stephen King, the man in black draws a card from a tarot deck picturing a woman with two faces (representing Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker) and remarks that she appears to be "a veritable Janus."

*Sun Ra has an album entitled Janus.

*In the 1986 DC Comics book adaption on the Super Powers Team television series, Darkseid changes his identity and becomes the superhero "Janus" and wins Wonder Woman's friendship and romantic interest. As Janus he enters the hall of Justice and plans to destroy his enemies and take revenge on Apokolips.

*In the television show Teen Titans, in the episode Nevermore, Janus guards the doorway inside of Raven.

*In the sci-fi television show Stargate Atlantis, Janus was an Ancient who built a time machine.

*In fashion, Janus's head appears on the embellished version of the House of Fendi logo.

*In Shakespeare's play Othello, the double-crossing Iago utters the words "By Janus" when lying to Othello, a play on words considering his own two faced nature.

*In Arthur Koestler's book The Roots of Coincidence (1972), the fourth chapter, where Koestler introduces his theory of the two-sided holons, is titled "Janus". He also wrote a book, about the same subject, titled Janus: A Summing Up (1978).

*Philosopher and anthropologist of science and technology Bruno Latour uses Janus in his 'bestseller' Science in Action (1987) to explain the difference between "ready made science and technology" and "science and technology in the making".

*In 'United Artists' 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, Janus was used as the name for the villain's terrorist organisation, 'The Janus Syndicate'. Key in this organisation was a former 00-Agent who betrayed HMSS.

*Janus Films is a U.S. film distribution company founded in 1956 that distributes classic cinema, specializing mostly in foreign films.

*A Banshee.net agent in the Spycraft CCG was named Janus. The illustration on the card indicates that she was an android who could take the identity of others. The flavor text on the card read, "So who am I today?", and her play effect was to reduce all the skills of opposing agents by 1.

*A rare monster in the final dungeon in the game Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

*In the manga Ansatsu, Janus is the eighth Child in a series of bioweapons created for terrorist work.

*In Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, Janus is the moniker taken by the novel's villain.

*In the film The Da Vinci Code there is a statue of Janus in Teabing's library symbolizing that Teabing is two-faced.

*In the film Judge Dredd the super-secret program to grow clones to be Street Judges is called "Project Janus". Joseph Dredd and his evil twin Rico, were created under Project Janus before it was sealed. Additionally in the Judge Dredd comic series there is a Judge Janus

*In Alastair Reynolds's Pushing Ice, a group of comet harvesters discover that is a spacecraft.

*In the second revival of The Twilight Zone, the name Janus was used for the main character as she puts on her dead husband's glasses to reveal his killer who turns out to be herself all along--implying that she has lived a double life.

*Batman villain Two-Face has used the alias Janus. Similarly, Two-Face's ex-wife is also now married to a man named Paul Janus.

*Batman: The Animated Series contains two references, both related to Two-Face: When Maxie Zeus is captured and sent to Arkham Asylum, he refers to several known Batman villains as Greek gods, and calls Two-Face "Janus"(which is Roman not Greek). In a later episode, Two-Face uses the abandoned Janus Theater as a hideout.

*Two monsters in Final Fantasy XI have names relating to Janus, such as 'Bifrons' and the Demon 'Count Bifrons'.

*Benji Schwimmer's mock band, Sreattlands, wrote a song called Janus.

* In the Incredible Hulk episode "Death Mask" when David is being interrogated his interrogater contrasts himself with Janus saying he could not be two-faced; could not be a good cop - bad cop

* Polish town had a coat of arms with the Janus two-faced head until 1967.

* In the HBO/BBC TV series Rome, the character Titus Pullo prays to Forculus, a related god to Janus to free him from a locked cart in which he has been imprisoned. Lucius Vorenus and his family later pray to Janus when starting a new business.

*In the original Japanese version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a monster that lights the way in the Catacombs is called Bifrons, which is an alternate name for Janus. This was changed to Lossoth in the European and American release.

*In the popular computer game "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" the NPC character Jeanette/Therese/Tourette Voerman is referred to as a "Daughter of Janus", referring to her split personality. This is only a dialogue option if you are playing a Malkavian character.

*In the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Halloween" the character Ethan Rayne prays to a bust of Janus in order to bring about a spell that turns everyone into the personification of their halloween costumes. The spell is broken by the bust being smashed.

*In the video game Chrono Trigger, there is a boy named Janus who predicts when people will die. This same boy later turns out to be a powerful mage, a character who you can get to join your party.

*In Frans de Waal's book Our Inner Ape the behavioral tendencies of bonobos and chimpanzees are likened to a Janus head, with humans (equally close genetically to each species) able to act in either direction.

*In Monday Begins on Saturday, a science fiction novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a character named Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev is known to be one man in two personas, called A-Janus and U-Janus.

*The name of the ski resort of Vaujany in the French Alps comes from the Latin Via-Janus, the road of Janus. It is below a pass linking the ancient Duchy of Savoy from the Dauphiné province.

*Janus Talon is the name of a fictitious Star Wars character. He dealt with the duality of the Force and had to understand both sides of it.

*In the D20 Modern Roleplaying game, a cult known as the Children of Chaos worship Janus.

*In Elizabeth Winthrop's children's novel The Castle in the Attic and its sequel The Battle for the Castle, Janus appears on the two magic tokens. Each token has one of Janus's faces on it.

*In the novel The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan, a project to determine if a complex computer system controlling the earth would be beneficial or devastating to mankind if it evolved intelligence, is named Janus after the God.

*The novel Unleashing Janus by Ted David Harris tracks the struggle between a secret hacker society and a covert government agency for control of a conscious machine codenamed "Janus".

*The game Imperian, published by Iron Realms Entertainment has a deity called Janus as the God of the Seasons.

*The novel Janus Man by Colin Forbes is a story about a British counter-espionage organisation trying to flush out a traitor from amongst their own agents. In the novel he is said to be working for (or looking) both east and west.

*In Alan Moore's comic series Top 10, there is a character named Janus, who indeed has a second face on the back of her head. The two faces refer to themselves as sisters.

*In Andre Norton's novels Judgment on Janus and Victory on Janus the protagonists undergo a transformation and find they have two sets of memories. In addition to their human ones, they also remember living as members of an intelligent, but extinct, species native to Janus.

*Serial Killer Ian Brady wrote a novel called "The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis".

*The Zündapp Janus, a small German car of the 1950s, was named for its front/rear symmetry, giving it two "faces."

Father Time
Father Time is a personification of time in many Western cultures. He is usually depicted as a white-bearded old man, and is often patterned after other time deities, such as Chronos.

*The 1980s television program The Smurfs occasionally featured Father Time as a supporting character. He was shown as the husband of Mother Nature in the series.

*A metal figure of Father Time sits upon Lord's Cricket Ground in northwest London.

*The 1975 stop-motion animated special Rudolph's Shiny New Year featured Father Time, voiced by entertainer Red Skelton.

*In The Chronicles of Narnia, Father Time is a giant who spends the entire history of Narnia sleeping in an underground cavern (as revealed in The Silver Chair). He awakes to herald the end of Narnia at Judgment Day in The Last Battle.

*In the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, Chronos is a main character, the Incarnation of Time. Unlike other depictions of Father Time, Chronos is just an office, and any person may take it. Chronos also lives in a different time frame, having time travel backwards for him instead of forwards until the moment of his birth or conception.

*In Flint the Time Detective, the Old Timer is a variation of Father Time.

*In the Mario Van Peebles film Posse "Father Time" is played by Big Daddy Kane.

*In the 2002 film The Santa Clause 2 and its sequel The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Father Time is portrayed as a member of the Council of Legendary Figures. He was portrayed in these films by Peter Boyle.

*The comic strip Frank and Ernest depicts Father Time and produced Baby New Year with wife Mother Nature.

*The notable bass player, Leland Sklar, is said to resemble to Father Time.

The Dísir
The Dísir (singular: Dís) are Norse goddesses and minor deities of time and fate. They include the Norns.

*Dís is the name of a female Dwarf in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.
*Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight contains a character named 'Disiri', who is Queen of the Moss Aelf.
*The German Viking Metal band Falkenbach has a song on their Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty album entitled Vanadis, or "Dís of the Vanir" (this being an epithet of Freya).
*Dis is a demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series of video games.

The Fates

The Norns
Norns are time and fate goddesses similar to the Moirae in Greek mythology. They are members of the Disir.

* The goddesses in the anime series are named after and loosely based upon the Norns, Urðr (Wyrd, Weird), Verðandi, and Skuld.

* In the anime/manga series Matantei Loki, based on Norse mythology, the Norn sisters appear as assassins in order to kill the protagonist Loki.

The Moirae
The Moirae are the Greek version of the Fates, taking the form of three sisters. Clotho, who spins the "thread of life;" Lachesis, who measures the length of life; and Atropos, who cuts the thread at its end.

* Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch are Lloyd Alexander's versions of the Moirae. They appear in the Prydain Chronicles.

* Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick from Terry Pratchett's Discworld are loosely based on the Moirae.

* In an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Fates are represented by three young women who control people's destinies.

*Once Upon A Winter's Night has the three Fates playing a major role when Camille seeks their aid, they are known as the Maiden, Mother and Crone, Skuld Verdandi Urd who weave the threads of the tapestry of time

* Xena:Warrior Princess has a recurring trio known as The Fates, comprising the Maiden, Mother and Crone, who weave the threads of life.

* In Disney's Hercules, when Hades wishes to know the future, he consults the Fates, who share a single eye among them, a feature of the Graeae of Greek mythology.

* In the spin-off novels to the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, the Fates of the Time lord religion are depicted as three women, created when the universe was young. They are Death, Time, and Pain, who sit as maiden, mother, and crone, respectively.

* In the computer game Loom, the Elders of the Guild of Weavers are named for the Moirae, although one Elder, Atropos, is male.

* The Moirae are depicted in the beginning of the Korean manhwa series Ragnarök.

* In Stephen King's 1994 Insomnia, the Moirae are depicted in the form of three doctors who visit people at the end of their life to cut their thread. Atropos is depicted as a creature of Random while the other two are workers of the Purpose, or fate.

* In Nagano Mamoru's Five Star Stories (a space opera manga), the master fatima meight Dr Chrome Ballanche named his last three masterpiece fatimas after the Greek Fates, Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho.

* The Fates are depicted in the Incarnations of Immortality novels, and are the focus of With a Tangled Skein.

* In Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for the PlayStation 2, the main character at one point has to fight the three sisters. First separately, then all three at once later.

* The PlayStation 2 game God of War 2 revolves around Kratos and his quest to seek out the Three Sisters of Fate in order to alter his own destiny, although they are greatly different from mythology: Lakhesis is seen as a flying robed sorceress wielding a staff who uses powerful spells to defend their abode, while Atropos is seen as a flying witch-like sorceress with knife-like fingers, clearly used to cut the threads of each soul. And Clotho, the youngest sister is seen as a massive grotesque maggot-like creature with a woman's torso and head, who uses her many arms to thread the silken threads of the loom. she is suspended in a tower-like structure inside the loom chamber, and is immobile.

* The Moirae are the antagonists in David Brin's novella, "The Loom of Thessaly".

* In the Super Nintendo game Chrono Trigger, the playable character, Robo, comes in contact with, and fights a robot from his past by the name of Atropos XR.

* In the PlayStation game Chrono Cross (the sequel to Chrono Trigger), the protagonist Serge faces the Vitae (Vita Unus, Vita Duo and Vita Tres) in the Sea of Eden. These three bosses have different attack modes, called "Atropos," "Clotho" and "Lachesis," and they must be defeated before the party can face the Goddess of Fate inside Chronopolis.

* In the Game Boy Advance game Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, the player can learn three special techniques that can be used with specific weapons to deal incredible damage but damage the user. These three techniques are named after the Moirae.

* In the Game Boy Advance game Golden Sun 2, three of the most powerful items that player controlled characters can use are the Lanchesis' Rule, Atropos' Rod, and Clothos' Distaff. The Clothos' Distaff restores health; the Lachesis Rule unleashes Apocalypse; and, the Atropos' Rod also featured a special attack called Life Shear.

* Joseph Conrad alludes to the Fates in his novella Heart of Darkness when Marlow prepares to leave for Africa.

* *Progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer wrote a three-part music piece called "The Three Fates", with the parts called "Clotho", "Lachesis" and "Atropos" respectively. The piece is heard on their first album.

* The weird sisters in Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" are portrayed as the fates meddling in the affairs of mortals.

* In the Game Boy Advance game DemiKids (A Shin Megami Tensei spinoff), the three Moirae are acquirable as monsters.

* In the book The Sea of Monsters, in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Moirae are shown to be "with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress." Their names are: Anger, Wasp, and Tempest. In the book, they have one eye total, a feature similar to that of the Graeae of Greek Mythology.

*'Fate' is the title of one of Rachmaninoff's finest songs.

Atropos
*In Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, Atropos is one of the aspects of Fate; she is always described as old and perhaps . In one instance the position is taken by a man, but he chooses to appear as an old woman so as not to unsettle those who see the three aspects sharing one body, particularly the Incarnation of Time, who is having an affair with Clotho.
*Atropos and her sisters were characters in Disney's , in which she was voiced by the late Paddi Edwards. In the spinoff Disney TV series, Disney's Hercules (1998-1999), she was voiced by Tress MacNeille.
*Atropos the Bane Elemental - playable hero in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map Defense of the Ancients
*In the C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Captain Hornblower's first post-captain command was the fictional HMS Atropos, a 22-gun sloop named after the goddess.

Lachesis
*Lachesis (Lakhesis) makes an appearance in Sony Computer Entertainment America's God of War II. She is the first Sister of Fate that the main character Kratos battles. She is also the first goddess of Fate that Kratos encounters in the game; speaking to him through a monumental statue in her own temple after the Steeds of Time allow Kratos to move into the Island of Creation. She appears in the game as a young woman wearing a warrior's helmet, with a wing growing out of her back (this allows her to levitate), wielding a hooked rod with her left breast exposed. On several accounts, she is seen completely engulfed in shadow with her eyes glowing white. She and Atropos are killed by Kratos when he trapped them both in his past, leaving them stuck between the past and present for eternity.
*In the game EVE Online, the Lachesis is the Gallente's Combat Recon ship.
*Lachesis is an Aspect of Fate and a main character in the Incarnations of Immortality book series by Piers Anthony.
*Tony Award winner Carole Shelley provided the voice for Lachesis in Walt Disney Pictures film '.
*"Clotho", "Lachesis", and "Atropos" are also personas that the main character of Persona 3 may summon. They are of fortune arcana and when all three are combined they create the persona known as Norn.
*In the game Golden Sun: The Lost Age, a staff found in the latter portion of the game is called Lachesis' Rule. It provides +177 attack and an unleash called Apocalypse. Razer USA Ltd, a gaming peripheral company, announced the Razer *Lachesis mouse as the newest addition to their product line on August 23, 2007.
*Lachesis is the name of one of the musics featured on the soundtrack of the video game Collumns for the Sega Genesis video game console.
*Lachesis is the name of the fatima that becomes Emperor Amaterasu's wife in Mamoru Nagano's The Five Star Stories manga series.

Clotho
*In (the series that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was based on), Clotho was depicted as a young girl dressed entirely in white robes. She was an entity with the power of life and was also the one that gave the Lapseless Room, Zyusouken (Beast Play Sword), and Dragon Caesar to Burai (The Dragon Ranger). It is rumored that after Burai's death, many kids wrote to TV Asahi (the TV station that Zyurangers was on) asking for the writers to have Clotho resurrect Burai.
*In Stephen King's Insomnia, Clotho is depicted as a small male doctor alongside Lachesis and Atropos. He served the Purpose, along with Lachesis, while Atropos served the Random.
*In the video game God of War II, Clotho and her sisters act as bosses. Here, she is seen as a massive, grotesque, maggot-like creature with a woman's torso and head, who uses her many arms to thread the silken threads of the loom. She is suspended in a tower-like structure inside the loom chamber, and is immobile. She is killed by Kratos when he impales a giant axe pendulum through her head.
*In Raphael Sabatini's Captain Blood, Peter Blood captured three ships from the Spaniards and renamed them Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. This was a "grimly jocular manner of conveying to the world that he made them the arbiters of the fate of any Spaniards he should henceforth encounter upon the seas."
*'Clotho', 'Lachesis' and 'Atropos' are also the names of the selectable background music in the Sega Mega Drive game Columns.
*In Piers Anthony's book series, the Incarnations of Immortality, Clotho is the youngest aspect of Fate. She is consistently described as being quite young, shapely and attractive.
*Tony and Emmy Award winner Amanda Plummer provided the voice for the muse Clotho in Walt Disney Pictures film '.
*In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, a rare weapon called Clotho's Distaff can be found in Mars Lighthouse.
*"Clotho", "Lachesis", and "Atropos" are also personas that the main character of Persona 3 may summon. they are of fortune arcana and when all three are combined they create the persona known as Norn.
*Progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer wrote a three-part music piece called "The Three Fates", with the parts called "Clotho", "Lachesis" and "Atropos" respectively. The piece is heard on their first album.
*In Mamoru Nagano's manga series, The Five Star Stories, The fatima "Clotho" is taken into the care of King Colus III of planet Both after running away from Duke Juba's fatima debut. Many, many years later, Colus III's great-grandson, headdliner Colus VI becomes Clotho's master.

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