Fate

Fate, in Greek and Roman mythology, any of three goddesses who determined human destinies and in particular the span of a person’s life and the allotment of misery and suffering. Homer writes of Fate (moira) in the singular as an impersonal power and sometimes makes its functions interchangeable with those of the Olympian gods. From the time of the poet Hesiod (8th century bce) on, however, the Fates were personified as three very old women who spin the threads of human destiny. The Romans identified the Parcae, originally personifications of childbirth, with the three Greek Fates.

Origin and portrayal

In early legends the Fates were the daughters of Nyx, the primordial personification of night. Later, they came to be regarded as the offspring of Zeus, chief of the Olympian gods, and Themis, the Titan goddess of law and justice. A third version of their genealogy gives Ananke, the primordial personification of necessity, as the mother of the Fates. The names of the Fates were Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), and Atropos (Inflexible). Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual’s moment of death). The Roman goddesses were named Nona, Decuma, and Morta.

In art the Fates were generally represented in the act of weaving and holding symbols of their functions: Clotho with a spindle or the book of life, Lachesis with a measuring instrument, and Atropos with a cutting device. They were sometimes depicted as regal rather than as old and wizened.

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From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology

Mythology

Immensely powerful, the Fates were depicted as inflexible and inevitable. Even Zeus was forced to submit to their authority. During the Trojan War he was unable to act on the foreknowledge that his mortal son Sarpedon would be killed in battle by the Greek warrior Patroclus. However, the Fates sided with Zeus in the war between the Olympians and the Giants and also aided in his defeat of the monster Typhon.

The futility of attempting to cheat the Fates was demonstrated in the legend of Meleager, whose lifespan was linked to a burning log. After Meleager’s birth, Atropos decreed that he would die when the log burnt to ashes, prompting his mother to hide the log for safekeeping. However, when the adult Meleager killed his uncles following a dispute, his mother burnt the log, ending his life and fulfilling the conditions of his death. On one occasion the Fates were induced by Apollo to reveal a way to prolong the life of one of his favorites, Admetus, who was fated to die. When the Fates disclosed that Admetus would live if someone willingly died in his place, his wife, Alcestis, sacrificed herself. In the commonly held version, she was rescued by Heracles, who wrestled Death at her grave.