The Fates

The Fates — the Moirai to the Greeks, the Parcae to the Romans — are the three goddesses of destiny who apportion to each mortal their lot. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it out, and Atropos, 'the unturnable', cuts it at the appointed end. Their decree binds even the gods, and stands for the inexorable order of fate itself.

Daughters of Night or of necessity, they embody the limit set upon every life. Yet Plato gives them a hopeful place in the Myth of Er that closes the Republic: there the souls about to be reborn choose their own next lives before the Fates ratify the choice, so that 'the blame belongs to the chooser — god is blameless'. The thread of destiny, in this vision, is woven in part by the soul's own choices.