The word fate traces back to the latin word fatum, which literally translated means “that which has been spoken.” And so fate was viewed by the Romans as the direct consequence of the unyielding proclamations by the gods. But in fact the Romans had merely adopted the concept of fate from the ancient Greeks. For them fate was personified by the Moirai, three goddesses that assigned every individual their destiny, represented as a thread of life, with each goddess having a specific role. Clotho (the spinner) spun the thread, Lachesis (the allotter) measured its length, and Atropos (the inflexible) cut it. But the ancient Greeks too had simply adopted the concept of fate from their forefathers and so it seems to go, down the entire length of human history.

When in 1882 Nietzsche wrote, “God is dead. God remains dead.” did he not equally proclaim the death of fate?

And if fate has in fact died as a viable concept to explain our lives and the world at large it seems to have at its very core the following consequence. Humans (and sometimes nature) are now the only thing left to take responsibility for the good and the bad.