Clotho
The Spinner · One of the Moirai · The Thread-Spinning Fate
Clotho in Greek tradition
Flax is wound round a distaff for the thread of human life. Clotho performs this task among the three Fates, or Moirae, who regulate the duration and destiny of mortals. Lachesis spins the thread, while Atropos measures and cuts it when a person’s life is about to end. Their decrees are unalterable.
Clotho is one of three sister goddesses of fate. The sisters are generally described as old women in white ermine robes bordered with purple, wearing woollen chaplets interwoven with narcissus flowers. In one account, Clotho and her sisters are daughters of Zeus and Themis. Hesiod elsewhere calls the Moirae children of Night, while another account names Nox and Erebus as their parents. Their name refers to portions or shares of life, which they assign at birth. Clotho belongs to this group as the spinner who begins the allotment of each mortal’s life.
The quick answers
Who is Clotho?
Clotho is a Greek being associated with spinning the thread of life, the beginning of human life, human lifespan, fate and destiny.Source
Source
- Greek Myths & Tales
What is Clotho the god of?
spinning the thread of life, the beginning of human life, human lifespan, fate and destinySource
Source
- Greek Myths & Tales
What family links are recorded for Clotho?
Father: Zeus, Mother: Nyx, 2 siblings.
Clotho’s family, at a glance
Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.
The names Clotho answers to
Klotho
Alternate transliteration of Clotho's Greek name
SourceGreek Myths & Tales
The Spinner
The Fate who spins the thread of life
SourceGreek Myths & Tales
The Youngest of the Moirai
Traditional description of Clotho among the three Fates
SourceGreek Myths & Tales
Clotho, and where the myths place it
Appears in
The myths across MythSource where Clotho features, each on that figure’s page.
- The Birth of the Moirai · on Lachesis
- Themis’s Marriage and Divine Children · on Themis
4 works catalogued
This is the candidate catalogue for Clotho: candidate reworks first, then references, then names used as atmosphere. Nothing here has been checked against a source yet. Only reviewed myth-to-work links are promoted in Overview.
Showing 4 of 4 works.
Film1
- The Epic Tale of Kalesius and Clotho: A Meditation on the Impossibility of Romantic Love in a Rapidly Expanding UniverseName only
Game3
- God of War IIIRework
- God of War IIRework
- Cards of ClothoName only
These are catalogue candidates, not proof that every work retells this figure. Reviewed myth-to-work links appear in Overview.
What this page is built from
About this page
Written and maintained by MythSource. Last reviewed not yet recorded. How a page gets built.
3 sources are cited on this page, primary texts and corpus scholarship, listed below.
Cite this page
MythSource. (n.d.). Clotho. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/clotho
"Clotho." MythSource, n.d., www.mythsource.com/figures/clotho.
"Clotho." MythSource. n.d. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/clotho.
The mythology summaries and identity fields on this page are grounded in the primary texts and scholarship above. The appearance table records candidates separately; only reviewed joins are presented as modern reworks in Overview.
The film
The Underdrawing video on Clotho embeds here once it publishes.