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In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (/ ˈ m ɔɪ r aɪ,-r iː /)—often known in English as the Fates—were the personifications of destiny. They were three sisters: Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (the allotter), and Atropos (the inevitable, a metaphor for death). Their Roman equivalent is the Parcae. [1]
Les Parques ("The Parcae," ca. 1885) by Alfred Agache The Three Parcae (1540-1550), by Marco Bigio, in Villa Barberini, Rome Fireback with Parcae. In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Parcae (singular, Parca) were the female personifications of destiny who directed the lives (and deaths) of humans and gods.
Tenth-century German ecclesiastical writings denounce the popular belief in three sisters who determined the course of a man's life at his birth. [22] An Old Irish hymn attests to seven goddesses who were believed to weave the thread of destiny, which demonstrates that these spinster fate-goddesses were present in Celtic mythology as well. [27]
As one of the three fates, her influence in Greek mythology was significant. Along with her sisters and Hermes, Clotho was given credit for creating the alphabet for their people. Even though Clotho and her sisters were worshiped as goddesses, their representation of fate is more central to their role in mythology. Thread represented human life ...
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Adjectival use of wyrd developed in the 15th century, in the sense 'having the power to control destiny', originally in the name of the Weird Sisters, i.e. the classical Fates, who in the Elizabethan period were detached from their classical background and given an English personification as fays. The Three Witches by Henry Fuseli (1783)
These three Norns are described as powerful women whose arrival from Jötunheimr ended the golden age of the gods. The Norns are also described as maidens of Mögþrasir in Vafþrúðnismál. [2] Beside the tending to Yggdrasill, Old Norse sources attest to Norns who visit a newborn child in order to determine the person's future. [3]
Normally seen clothed in white, Lachesis is the measurer of the thread spun on Clotho's spindle, and in some texts, determines Destiny, or thread of life. [1] Her Roman equivalent was Decima. Lachesis was the apportioner, deciding how much time for life was to be allowed for each person or being. [2] She measured the thread of life with her rod.