Decima (mythology)

This article is about the Roman goddess. For other uses, see Decima.

Decima was one of the three Parcae (known in English as the Fates) in Roman mythology.^[1] The Parcae goddess Nona was responsible for pregnancy; Decima was responsible for measuring a person's lifespan; and Morta was charged with overseeing death.^[2] They distributed to mankind all the good and bad things in life,^[3] and according to some classical writings even Jupiter had to bend to their will.^[4] Decima measured the thread of life with her rod,^[5] like her Greek equivalent Lachesis.^[4] In some accounts, her mother was Nox the goddess of night and her father was Scotus the god of darkness; while in other accounts, her parents were Jupiter and Themis.^[3]

Decima on the right measuring the thread of life near the other Parcae

See also

• Moirai
• Norns

References

Citations

1. Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy A.; Adkins, Both Professional Archaeologists Roy A. (2014-05-14). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Infobase Publishing. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-8160-7482-2.
2. Jordan, Michael (2014-05-14). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. Infobase Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-4381-0985-5.
3. Crabb, George (1840). New Pantheon; or, Mythology of all nations. Adapted to the biblical, classical and general reader, but more especially for the use of schools and young persons. James Webb Southgate. pp. 70–71.
4. A Commentary, Mythological, Historical, and Geographical on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil: With a Copious Index. J. Murray. 1829. p. 429.
5. Rosenthal, Adam R. (2022-02-03). Poetics and the Gift: Reading Poetry from Homer to Derrida. Edinburgh University Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-1-4744-8840-2.

Sources

• Gellius, Aulus. Noctes Atticae, III, 16.
• Tertullian. De Anima, 37.