“In their dark House of Cloud
The three weird sisters toil till time be sped:
One unwinds life; one ever weaves the shroud;
One waits to cut the thread.”
--_Thomas Bailey Aldrich._
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._