The Fates

1. The Fates By:Shannon Knapp

2. The Fates • The Fates are made up of three Goddess. • Clotho was the Spinner, Lachesisthe allotter, and Atropos is the unavoidable. • The Fates predated the Gods. • The were the offspring of the night deities Erebus and Nyx. • Some say they were the offspring of Zeus • They either live in Mount Olympus with Zeus • Or in the Underworld with Hades.

3. Why are the Important? • The fates decide a man’s destiny. • They had complete control over a mortals destiny. • But, it is not entirely sure how much power they have. It is possible that they determine the fate of the gods and goddesses as well.

4. Clotho • Clotho spun the thread. • This stands for making the thread of a persons life. • The spinning of thread became the basis for the images of the Fates as controlling the thread of each person’s life.

5. Lachesis • Is the allotter. • Lachesis measures the thread. • This means she determines how long someone has to live.

6. Atropos • Is the unavoidable. • She is cuts the thread of life with her shears.

7. Roman • The Romans called the Fates Parcae. • Parcae means “those who bring forth the child,” • Their names were Nona, Decuma, and Morta. • Nona and Decuma were originally the goddesses of childbirth, but the romans added the third Morta to adopt the Greek concept of the three weavers. • The Romans sometimes referred to the three as a single goddess known as Fortuna.

8. The Norse • The Norse called their three Fates the Norns. • Urth was the past, Verthandithe presebt, and Skuld was the future. • The Norns were sometimes referred to as the Weird Sisters, from the Norse word wyrd, meaning “Fate”.

9. Famous Stories • The Fates are a part of almost every story. • This is because whenever someone dies, they are the ones who cut the thread of their life, and decided that persons or even gods fate.

10. Example Stories • In one story, Apollo got all three of the Fates drunk. • In doing this, he persuaded them to let someone else die in place of his friend Admetus.

11. Example Stories • Another more famous story is the birth of Meleager. • The fates appeared to his mother when he was bored and said that he would die as soon as a burning brand on a fireplace was consumed. • His mother hid the log so this couldn’t happen. • When Meleager was grown, he killed his mothers brother in a dispute. • In rage, his mother threw the log into the fire, killing her son.

12. Example Stories • They resurrected the boy Pelops. • He is the one who had been cut up and fed to the gods at a feast by his father Tantalus. • Demeter ate his shoulder, so the Fates replaced it with an ivory one.