Editing Ananke (section)

== In philosophical thought ==
In the ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', Plato has the character Timaeus (not Socrates) argue that in the creation of the universe, there is a uniting of opposing elements, intellect ('nous') and necessity ('ananke'). Elsewhere, Plato blends [[abstraction]] with his own [[myth]] making: "For this ordered world ([[cosmos]]) is of a mixed birth: it is the offspring of a union of Necessity and [[Intellect]]. Intellect prevailing over Necessity by persuading (from Peitho, goddess of persuasion) it to direct most of the things that come to be toward what is best, and the result of this [[subjugation]] of Necessity to wise persuasion is the initial formation of the universe".<ref>48a, trans. John M. Cooper</ref> In [[Victor Hugo]]'s novel ''[[The Hunchback of Notre-Dame|Notre-Dame of Paris]]'', the word "Ananke" is written upon a wall of Notre-Dame by the hand of Dom [[Claude Frollo]]. In his ''[[Toute la Lyre]]'', Hugo also mentions Ananke as a symbol of love. In 1866, he wrote:

{{Blockquote|Religion, society, nature; these are the three struggles of man. These three conflicts are, at the same time, his three needs: it is necessary for him to believe, hence the temple; it is necessary for him to create, hence the city; it is necessary for him to live, hence the plow and the ship. But these three solutions contain three conflicts. The mysterious difficulty of life springs from all three. Man has to deal with obstacles under the form of superstition, under the form of prejudice, and under the form of the elements. A triple "ananke" (necessity) weighs upon us, the "ananke" of dogmas, the "ananke" of laws, and the "ananke" of things. In ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' the author has denounced the first; in ''[[Les Misérables]]'' he has pointed out the second; in this book (''[[Toilers of the Sea]]'') he indicates the third. With these three fatalities which envelop man is mingled the interior fatality, that supreme ''ananke'', the human heart.
Hauteville House, March, 1866. Victor Hugo, ''Toilers of the Sea'', 1866, p. 5<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/worksofvictorhug08hugoiala#page/n11/mode/2up Victor Hugo, ''Toilers of the Sea''], 1866, p. 5</ref>|author=Victor Hugo|title=|source=}}

[[Sigmund Freud]] in ''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]'' (p.&nbsp;140) said: "We can only be satisfied, therefore, if we assert that the process of civilization is a modification which the vital process experiences under the influence of a task that is set it by [[Eros]] and instigated by Ananke&nbsp;— by the exigencies of [[reality]]; and that this task is one of uniting separate individuals into a community bound together by libidinal ties."

[[Wallace Stevens]], in a poem of the 1930s, writes: "The sense of the serpent in you, Ananke, / And your averted stride / Add nothing to the horror of the frost / That glistens on your face and hair."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stevens|first1=Wallace|title=Collected Poems|date=1990|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=9780679726692|page=152}}</ref> This connects with Stevens's sense of necessity or fate in his later work, especially in the collection ''The Auroras of Autumn''.

Robert Bird's essay "Ancient Terror",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bird|first1=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzxhCR0S3fIC&pg=PA154|title=The Russian Prospero: The Creative Universe of Viacheslav Ivanov|date=2007|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299218331|page=154}}</ref> inspired by [[Léon Bakst]]'s painting ''Terror Antiquus'', speculates on the evolution of Greek religion, tracing it to an original belief in a single, supreme goddess. [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] suggests that the ancients viewed all that is human and all that is revered as divine as relative and transient: "Only [[Moirai|Fate]] (Eimarmene), or universal necessity (Ananke), the inevitable '[[Adrasteia]],' the faceless countenance and hollow sound of unknown Destiny, was absolute." Before the goddess, who is both indestructible Force of Love and absolute Fate the Destroyer, Life-Giver and Fate-Death, as well as incorporating [[Mnemosyne]] (Memory) and [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] (Mother Earth), masculine daring and warring are impotent and transient, and the masculine order imposed by [[Zeus]] and the other Olympian Gods is artificial.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ivanov|first1=Vi͡acheslav Ivanovich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJ3YyoZFBZ8C&pg=PA154|title=Selected Essays|last2=Bird|first2=Robert|last3=Wachtel|first3=Michael|date=2001|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=9780810115224|pages=153–159}}</ref>