Her Roman equivalent was Decima ('the Tenth'). Lachesis ( / ˈ l æ k ɪ s ɪ s/, Greek Λάχεσις,, 'allotter' or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod.Her Roman equivalent was Nona ('the ninth'), who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy. Clotho ( / ˈ k l oʊ θ oʊ/, Greek Κλωθώ,, 'spinner') spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle.The Three Fates by Paul Thumann, 19th century The concept of a universal principle of natural order and balance has been compared to similar concepts in other cultures such as the Vedic Ṛta, the Avestan Asha (Arta) and the Egyptian Maat. In Plato's Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke (necessity). Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, daughters of Nyx and are acting over the gods. In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa are related to the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate, although in some representations Zeus, the chief of the gods, is able to command them. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives, and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. However, according to the often cited Latin verse Clotho colum retinet, Lachesis net, et Atropos occat, their roles and functions were also seen differently:Ĭlotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair of scissors. Their number became fixed at three: Clotho ('spinner'), Lachesis ('allotter') and Atropos ('the unturnable', a metaphor for death). In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai ( / ˈ m ɔɪ r aɪ, - r iː/, also spelled Moirae or Mœræ Ancient Greek: Μοῖραι, 'lots, destinies, apportioners'), often known in English as the Fates ( Latin: Fata), were the personifications of destiny their Roman equivalent was the Parcae (euphemistically the 'sparing ones'), and there are other equivalents in cultures that descend from the Proto-Indo-European culture.

Eternal threads of life