
The Moirai.
The Moirai, also known as the Moirae Sisters, the Moerae, the Fates or the Sisters of Fate, are the goddesses of fate and the daughters of Ananke and Time.
Description[]
The Moirai were described as ugly old women, sometimes lame. Yet sometimes they can appear as extremely beautiful women, but that depends on who they are watching over. For it is said that a human who dies with goodness in his heart will see the Moirai before him as beautiful and kind-hearted, while those that die with sin will see them as hideous and merciless.
Clotho carries a spindle or a roll (the book of fate), a staff with which she points to the horoscope on a globe for Lakhesis, and Atropos a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, a pair of scales, or a cutting instrument. They were severe, inflexible and stern. The three were shown with staffs or scepters, the symbols of dominion, and sometimes even with crowns. At the birth of each man they appeared spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of life.
There are only three known sisters known as Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable). Clotho spun the thread of life from her Distaff onto her Spindle, Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod, and Atropos was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person's death; and when their time was come, she cut their life-thread with "her abhorred shears".
Overview[]
The Fates were birthed by Ananke alongside their counterparts the Norns, their Norse counterparts, with Time as their father. The Moirai would aid in weaving out the threads of Ananke's tapestries concerning the destiny of all things in creation and determining the roles and outcome by Destiny's words from the Cosmic Log, while the Norns are tasked with carving the words from the Cosmic Log unto the tapestries, operating as the "pens" for the Word of God.
They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction. While believed to have an autonomous authority, the Fates in fact only truly answer to either God, Ananke, or Destiny with them being under God's guidance whilst they act as associates of Death herself when it comes ending of a human's life and being agents of Destiny who oversees their duties involving the way a sentient being is to act throughout its life.
At the birth of a man, the Moirai spun out the thread of his future life, followed his steps, and directed the consequences of his actions according to destiny. The Fates did not abruptly interfere in human affairs but availed themselves of intermediate causes, and determined the lot of mortals not absolutely, but only conditionally, even man himself, in his freedom was allowed to exercise a certain influence upon them. As man's fate terminated at his death, the goddesses of fate become the goddesses of death.