Fate smiled and destiny laughed as she came to my cradle

[Quang Hai]

Dear Teachers and members,
In the some 'Wonder' by Natalie Merchant there is a sentence: 'Fate smiled and destiny laughed as she came to my cradle …'
Please someone tell me the meaning of that? Fate and Destiny are two Gods? What is different between them. Thanks.

 

[BobK]

It's personification. Some cultures take a personification and make it into a god. The Romans did: more or less any feminine abstract noun you can think of was a goddess - Honor, Patientia, Prudentia...

I doubt if that song-writer thought of them as gods.

b

 

[Quang Hai]

What is different between God of Fate and God of Destiny please?

 

[BobK]

In many contexts they overlap. Broadly, Fate concerns bad or unfortunate things that are going to happen, and Destiny concerns good or fortunate things. Love is a notorious mixed blessing - so Fate is often concerned in affairs of the heart. But if someone who fell in love (note the word 'fell') says he was 'fated to meet her' there's a suggestion that something unfortunate or painful resulted; but if he was 'destined to meet her' then they probably lived happily ever after.

Making them gods is just a literary mechanism (in your example) used by the writer.

b