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The Fates (or Moirae)
are the three sisters, robed in white, who decide on human fate.
Lachesis sings of the things that were, Clotho those that are, and
Atropos (or Atropus) the things that are to be. Of the three,
Atropos is the smallest in stature, but the most terrible and
feared.
Even though the Fates are often depicted as old, ugly and
unmerciful, they are most honored among the gods because they
distribute justly and have a share in every home. They give men at
their birth their share of evil and good, and equally they punish
the transgressions of both men and of gods.
Atropos is said to be the eldest, the best and the shortest of the
sisters. Clotho is the "spinner" and Lachesis the apportioner of
lots. The thread of life is spun upon Clotho's spindle, measured
by the rod of Lachesis and finally snipped by the shears of
Atropos, the inevitable one. Their priests and ministers were
always oracles, seers and soothsayers.
It is said that only Zeus, the King of the Olympian gods, can
weigh the lives of men and that it is he who informs the three
sisters of his decisions. In that case, the Fates are viewed only
as the instrument of Zeus. Still others claim that not even Zeus
is beyond the power of the Fates and that he is subject to their
whim. That would make the Fates the most powerful of all the
deities.
How powerful are they? Some say that Zeus is above Destiny and
that it obeys him. For Zeus has been also called "the Bringer of
Fate" and "Leader of the Fates" because he knows the affairs of
men, all that the Fates give them, and all that is not in their
fate. But others claim that even Zeus has to obey Destiny.
But it has also been claimed that Tyche (Luck, Fortune) was one of
the Fates and the most powerful of the sisters because beauty and
virtue and good fame are in her keeping and her pleasure is to
dash immoderate hopes.
In the abode of the Fates are the records of all that happens on
tablets of brass and iron, which are neither shaken by warfare in
heaven, nor lightning, nor any destructive power. They are eternal
and secure, these archives of the Fates.
Some humans however claim that men themselves control their Fates
by avoiding unnecessary dangers. The younger gods laugh at the
Fates and Apollo once went so far as to make them drunk in order
to save his good friend Admetus from death.
The Fates played a role in many myths. During the war between the
Giants and the Olympians the Fates armed themselves with clubs and
fought and killed a couple of Giants. They also deluded Typhon
when he came with an attitude to challenge the rule of Zeus. The
Fates gave the monster Typhon to taste of the ephemeral fruits and
convinced him that he would be strengthened by them. Instead the
fruit weakened Typhon, helping Zeus to demolish him and establish
his supremacy on Mount Olympus.
When the hero Meleager was seven days old the Fates came and
declared that the new baby would die when the log burning on the
hearth would finally burn out. Clotho said that he would be noble
and Lachesis that he would be brave, but Atropos looked at the
brand burning on the hearth and said: "He will
live only as long as this brand remains unconsumed."
On hearing this, his mother snatched up the log and hid it in
a chest, carefully preserving it. But as "fate" would have it,
Meleager eventually killed his uncles and his mother, consumed by
grief at the slaughter of her brothers, brought out the fire brand
and kindled it.
Just as the Fates had prophesized, Meleager was killed.
When Zeus fell in love with the Nereid Thetis the Fates
prophesized that the son born of any union with Thetis would grow
up to become mightier than his father. Zeus, afraid that the same
fate would befall him, as it had his own father Cronus, backed off
and left Thetis alone. She ended up marrying the mortal Peleus and
eventually gave birth to Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan
War.
At Delphi, the seat of Apollo's oracle, only two Fates are
worshipped, those of Birth and Death; and at Athens Aphrodite
Urania is called the eldest of the three.
There are various versions of their parentage:
1) Erebus & Nyx (Night)
2) Nyx (Night)
3) Chaos
4) Zeus & Themis
5) Ananke (Necessity)
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