Lachesis

"Disposer of Lots." One of the three Moirae. Lachesis measured the thread woven by Clotho's spindle, determining its length and thus the length of a person's life, and worked into the woof the sundry events destined to occur.

Plato1 calls her a daughter of Ananke, Necessity.

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Iconography

In works of art Lachesis was represented as a grave maiden, pointing with a staff to the horoscope on the globe.

References

Notes

  1. Republic, x, p. 763.

Sources

  • Cooper, J.C., ed. (1997). Brewer's Book of Myth and Legend. Oxford: Helicon Publishing Ltd.
  • Martius, iv, 54.9.
  • Ovid. Tristia, 5, 10, 45.
  • Pharnutus. On the Nature of the Gods, 13.
  • Seneca. Apocolocyntosis, 4, 1.