The goddess of Necessity, Themis, brought forth three daughters, known as the Keras (Fates). All living things must eventually submit to these divine daughters of Zeus and Themis. Their names are: Klotho (Clotho), Lachesis and Atropos. (Theogony, lines 218 and 904)
Klotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis determines the length of the thread and Atropos cuts the thread when the proper time has come for death. They are also called the Moirai to denote their descent from Moira, the original goddess of Black Fate. They are not to be confused with the Furies, who are the daughters of Nyx (Night). They laugh at our feeble attempts to cheat them because they always prevail.
Atropos is the smaller of the three sisters but she is superior to the others and the eldest of the three. Atropos is called “She who cannot be turned.”
The shield that Hephaistos (Hephaestus) made for Herakles (Heracles), when he fought the son of Ares (god of War), Kyknos (Cycnus), had a depiction of the three sisters as they fought fiercely over the body of a fallen man intent on fulfilling his doom. The way Hesiod described them was both unflattering and ferocious. They fought with evil intent and used hands and claws to claim their victim. (Shield of Herakles, line 258)
The Fates are mentioned in The Odyssey as the heavy Spinners.
