Atropos

Smallest in stature but the most terrible of the three Fates, Atropos is a goddess of fate who wears white robes with her sisters, Clotho and Lachesis. The three are described as conjoined. Their work is represented by a thread of life. Clotho prepares it, Lachesis spins it to its appointed length, and Atropos cuts it with her scissors when a mortal’s life is about to end. Her name refers to the part of fate that cannot be turned aside.

Her parentage differs between accounts. One tradition makes the Fates children of Night and Erebus. Hesiod calls them children of Night, and elsewhere names them daughters of Zeus and the Titan goddess Themis. Another account also gives Nox and Erebus as their parents. The Fates assign each person portions of good and evil at birth. Zeus is said to weigh human lives and inform them of his decisions, although another tradition says that even Zeus could not avert the fate imposed by a single Fate. Atropos therefore belongs to myths about the ordering and ending of mortal life, rather than to a separate story of her own.