The Three Fates Of Greek Mythology (Bite-Sized History)

The Fates, or Moirai, are a group of three weaving sisters who assign individual destinies to mortals at birth. The Moirai sisters are eternal. Goddesses, yes, but together they are more powerful than Zeus himself. So even if we do not see them, they are ever-present, quietly weaving our fate and tallying up our karma. Clotho, the youngest of the three sisters, is the spinner. She sits on her pedestal, twisting, pulling, and spinning the threads of life. Her job begins the very moment a child is born. While she is spinning, she consults with her older sister, Lachesis. Lachesis is the middle of the three, responsible for deciding the details of our journey. She is labeled the Allotter because she determines the length of an individual's life. After the thread is spun and measured, it's up to Atropos to make the final cut. As the eldest of the Moirai, it is she who decides how will we conclude this life before moving on to the next. She doesn't choose the age of our demise, but instead focuses on the how and why. Her name, Atropos, means inflexible, reflecting the finality of death. Together, the three sisters of fate, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos weave our story. It is these threads that tie us to the realm of the living, and instead of unraveling with age, the strings become more entangled and knotted as we inch closer to death, eternally linking us to our past lives.