The Fates were three sisters, daughters of Night, and were named Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Alotter), and Atropos (Unchangeable).
They exercised a great influence over human life from the cradle to the grave. They spent their time spinning a thread of gold, silver or wool—now tightening, now slackening, and at last cutting it off. This occupation was so arranged that Clotho put the thread around the spindle, Lachesis spun it, and Atropos, the eldest, cut it off—
“Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin spun life.”
—Milton.
Catullus thus gives a description of their spinning—
“Still as they span, as they span, was the tooth kept nipping and smoothing,
And to the withered lips clung morsels of wool as they smoothed it—
Filaments erstwhile rough that stood from the twist of the surface.
Close at their feet meantime, were woven baskets of wicker,