Moirai

The Moirai, three goddesses of fate, in Greek mythology.

Quotes about the Moirai:
Three other women sat in a circle at equal distances, each on her own throne: they were the Moires, daughters of Ananke, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos, dressed in white and with their heads girded with bandages; on the harmony of the Sirens Lachesis sang the past, Clotho the present, Atropos the future. (Plato) – The Moires who weave the thread and the Erinyes with implacable memory. – And Zeus is weaker than them? – Even Zeus cannot escape what is destined. (Aeschylus)
 * Even the gods had to submit to the cruel decrees of the Fates. (Stephen Fry)
 * – Who governs necessity?
 * I imagine them as three hags with hollowed-out cheeks, dressed in black rags, sitting in a cave babbling and nodding their heads as they spin, and instead many sculptors and poets depict them as pink-cheeked maidens, with white tunics and a modest smile on their lips. (Stephen Fry)
 * But why does she who spins day and night | The distaff had not yet drawn them | which Clotho imposes on each one and compiles (Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy)
 * Then Momo gave birth, the ever-sorrowful Misery, | the Hesperidi, who cares, beyond the immense Oceàno, | they have golden apples, trees heavy with fruit, | and the sorrowful Moires, who inflict cruel torments, | Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis, who to all mortal peoples | the good, as soon as the light comes, they share, and the evil, | and of the past the punishments inflict on men and on the gods. | Nor do these Divas ever desist from tremendous indignation, | before they inflict on every one the punishment as he has failed. (Hesiod)
 * He married the soft Tèmi seconda, che a luce da' l'Ore, | He says, with Eunomía, with Mighty Peace — on the work | they are always watching over men — and the Fates, | to whom the Chronicle bestowed the greatest honour: Lachèsi | Atropos and Klotus: good go to men and evil. (Hesiod)

Bibliography:

 * Armour, Robert A, 2001, Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, American Univ. in Cairo Press, ISBN 977-424-669-1.
 * Homer. The Iliad with an English translation. A. T. Murray, Ph.D. (1924), in two volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.
 * Homer. The Odyssey with an English translation. A. T. Murray, Ph.D. (1919), in two volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.
 * Thomas Blisniewski, 1992. Kinder der dunkelen Nacht: Die Ikonographie der Parzen vom späten Mittelalter bis zum späten 18. Jahrhundert. (Cologne) Iconography of the Fates from the late Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century.
 * Markos Giannoulis, 2010. Die Moiren. Tradition und Wandel des Motivs der Schicksalsgöttinnen in der antiken und byzantinischen Kunst, Ergänzungsband zu Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, Kleine Reihe 6 (F. J. Dölger Institut). Aschendorff Verlag, Münster, ISBN 978-3-402-10913-7.
 * Robert Graves, Greek Myths.
 * Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion 1903. Chapter VI, "The Maiden-Trinities".
 * L. H. Jeffery, 1976. Archaic Greece. The City-States c. 700–500 BC . Ernest Benn Ltd. London & Tonbridge, ISBN 0-510-03271-0.
 * Karl Kerenyi, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks (Thames and Hudson).
 * Martin P. Nilsson, 1967. Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion. Vol I, C.F. Beck Verlag., München.
 * Bertrand Russell, 1946. A history of Western Philosophy, and its connections with Political and Social Circumstances from the earliest times to the Present Day. New York. Simon & Schuster p. 148
 * Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898. perseus.tufts.edu
 * Herbert Jennings Rose, Handbook of Greek Mythology, 1928.
 * Carl Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth, 1994.
 * William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870, article on Moira, ancientlibrary.com
 * R. G. Wunderlich (1994). The secret of Crete. Efstathiadis group, Athens pp. 290–291, 295–296. (British Edition, Souvenir Press Ltd. London 1975) ISBN 960-226-261-3

References:

 * Norns