The Fates

> *"The Fates aren't some of your typical goddesses. They possess ancient and powerful knowledge beyond mortal comprehension. The Daughters of Destiny, they are called, Ladies of the Garden of Mist. Together they weave the great tapestry of life, doing the sacred job they were given by the highest of gods."*
>
>

According to legend, every mortal and immortal being was the whims of three harbingers of fate. These figures are appropriately known as **the Fates** (or **the Moirai**). The name roughly translates to “lots, destinies, and apportioners."

## Their names

The Fates were originally called Moirai in. The word *moira* means “share” or “portion” of something, whether meal, land, or victory spoils (compare this with the English word “merit” from the Latin *meritum*, “a reward”). By extension, Moirai means “The Apportioners,” i.e., the ones who give to each his own (portion of life). The Moirai’s Roman counterpart were the *Parcae*, probably because the Romans confused the origin of their name, thinking it stems from *pars* which is the Latin translation of *moira*; it’s actually derived from *parere*, “to bring forth,” which explains why the Parcae were initially birth spirits, and also why the Romans weren’t so far off when they merged them with the Moirai.

There were three Fates. Their names were: Clotho (meaning “The Spinner”), Lachesis (or “The Alloter”) and Atropos (literally “The Unturning” or, more freely, “The Inflexible”).

## Fates' Functions

Composed of three sisters—*Clotho*, *Lachesis* and *Atropos*—the *Fates* were a trinity of goddesses. They were the personifications of man’s life and destiny. These three immortals decided man’s fate as a singular force: his life, lifespan and death. Consequently, they were in control of the past, the present and the future. They were not only feared and respected by mortals—they were also in control of the fates of the gods.

Consistently portrayed as three women spinners, each of the three Fates had a different task, revealed by her very name: Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis measured its allotted length, and Atropos cut it off with her shears. Sometimes, each of the Fates was assigned to a specific period of time: Atropos – the past, Clotho –the present, and Lachesis – the future.

Although the *Fates* were represented as a threesome, the concept of “Fate” under which they worked is singular. Therefore, they worked collaboratively to affect the entire lives of men and gods. The *Fates* gave each man his own fate. Fate, in this context, refers to all events before, leading to, surrounding, and resulting in death. They represented the unavoidable fate of every living being, with no exceptions. Even though sometimes it appeared that man died before he was ready to, it is improbable that he could have lived longer than the time that the *Fates* decided to give him. Though the Law of Necessity, the *Fates* decided all life was inadequate.

### Clotho

*“He must look to meet whatever events his own fate and the stern Klothes (Clotho) twisted into his thread of destiny when he entered the world and his mother bore him.*”

First of all, there was Clotho, the “Spinner.” When a human was in the womb, Clotho had the duty of weaving the threads of their life. Greek myth often uses textile metaphors to convey intangible destiny. The metaphor often appears in descriptions as well as in art, as the weaving of threads on a loom, or in some cases spinning fibers into yarn.

Each thread represented one soul’s life. This thread would follow the path of a human’s life, including their future choices and actions, and the consequences that could be created. Clotho would begin spinning the thread while the human was in the womb, and so she is often referred to during pregnancies or during the birth of human beings.

The choices of mankind were not absolute. Instead, there was freedom in choice, and the fate of a human depended on conditional choices. The Fates would take all decisions and outcomes into account when they wove the thread. The thread of life came from Clotho’s distaff and went onto her spindle.

### Lachesis

*“This is the word of Lachesis, the maiden daughter of Gaia (Earth), souls that live for a day, now is the beginning of another cycle of mortal generation where birth is the beacon of death.”*

Lachesis was the second of the *Moirai,* or Fates, and her role was to measure the thread of a human’s life. Her name translates as “the Allotter” which fits her role as the one who allots a portion of mortal life to each soul. Lachesis would determine how long a human would live, and hence how many trials they would face in their life. Within the thread lay the fate of each soul.

To do that, she would use the staff she carried. It acted as a measuring rod that would determine how long a mortal or deity had to live. She effectively figured out their life span.

### Atropos

*“Comes the blind Fury with th’abhorred shears, / And slits the thin spun life.”*

The third sister was Atropos, whose name translates as *“the un-turnable or she who cannot be turned.”* Her name refers to her unshakeable position as the most stubborn of the Fates. Atropos was the one to cut the thread of fate, and at the point of the cut, the mortal life would end. Thus, Atropos resembles the death of a human.

Atropos’ role was vital, she chose how each person would die. She decided on the circumstances of their death — whether that was nobly or ignobly,  was up to her. She carried around cutting shears, representing her role in calling death.

## Explanation of the Myth

The *Fates* controlled the birth, death and lifespan of all gods and mortals. Every time a child was born, it was believed that the *Fates* would visit them three days after and decide whether the child should live. As soon as a child was born, the threads that the sisters used to determine life began to be spun. Each of the sisters had different roles. *Clotho* weaved the web of life from her distaff onto her roll, referred to as the *Book of Fate*. *Lachesis* would mature these threads to determine how long each life would last using her measuring staff. She would also point this staff at Horoscopes on the globe. *Atropos* decided exactly how someone was going to die using and would use shears to cut the thread when the time came. *Atropos* translates as “inevitable”. She was also the eldest and the wisest of the *Three Sisters*.

The *Fates* also knew what was going to happen during any man’s life. They knew the past, the present and the future and were interpreted as oracles. This allowed the *Fates* to decide what a man could or could not achieve throughout his life. Therefore, they possessed the knowledge of destiny as well as deciding it. Once the *Fates* had decided that it was a man’s time to die, their role would shift. They would go from the deities of fate to the goddesses of death.

The *Fates* worked independently from the other deities but sometimes worked with the *Erinyes*, a different group of three sisters who inflicted punishment when man carried out misdeeds. Together, they directed the fate of man in line with the laws of necessity.

## Trivia

* The Fates are credited with inventing seven letters of the alphabet.