Note 87 — Chapter XIII · THE RELATION OF THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY TO RELIGION.

The Fates (μοῖραι), as their name already indicates, stand for the righteous and invariable rule of destiny;87 the Graces (χάριτες), as to whose names, number, and qualities Chrysippus has given the fullest discussion,88 represent the virtues of benevolence and gratitude;89 the Muses, the divine origin of culture.90 Ares is war;91 Aphrodite, unrestrained passion, or, more generally, absence of control.92 Other interpreters, and among them Empedocles, consider Ares to represent the separating, Aphrodite the uniting, power of nature.93 The stories of the two deities being wounded by Diomedes,94 of their adulterous intrigues, and their being bound by Hephæstus,95 are explained in various ways—morally, physically, technically, and historically.