Ananke
primordialἈνάγκη
Personification of Necessity
Ananke was the primordial goddess of necessity, compulsion, and inevitability — the force even the gods could not resist.
The Myth
In Orphic cosmology, Ananke and Chronos were intertwined serpents who encircled the primordial egg, splitting it into Earth, Sea, and Sky. Not even Zeus could overrule Necessity. Plato described her spinning the spindle of the cosmos, with the Fates assisting. To fight ananke was the definition of futility.
Parents
Self-born (or from Chaos)
Children
The Fates (Moirai)
Symbols
spindleserpentchainscosmic egg
Fun Fact
The psychiatric term "anankastic personality" — describing obsessive compulsion — comes from this goddess of necessity.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth: