Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Clotho.
The gallery
Clotho
Camille Claudel, 1893
A plaster sculpture of Clotho, the Fate who spins the thread of life, imagined not as a maiden but as a gaunt old woman ensnared in the very threads she spins. Claudel's haunting inversion of the myth makes destiny itself appear entangled in its own web.
The Three Fates
Attributed to Il Sodoma, c. 1525
An oil painting of the three Fates at their shared task: Clotho spinning the thread of life, Lachesis measuring it, and Atropos waiting with shears to cut it. The work is held in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.
The Triumph of Death, or The Three Fates
Unknown Flemish workshop, c. 1510–1520
A Brussels-school tapestry now in the Victoria and Albert Museum: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos stand in triumph over the prostrate figure of Chastity, an allegory of Death drawn from Petrarch's Triumphs. Clotho, the spinner who begins each life, shares the foreground with her sisters' measure and shears.
The Fates Spinning Marie's Destiny
Peter Paul Rubens, 1622–1625
The opening canvas of Rubens' Marie de' Medici cycle in the Louvre: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos spin the queen's thread beneath Jupiter and Juno. Clotho, the youngest Fate, draws the first filament — destiny cast as court allegory at the birth of a reign.
Peleus and Clotho (House of Theseus mosaic, Paphos)
Unknown Roman mosaicist, late 3rd–early 4th century AD
Detail from the Achilles bath mosaic in the House of Theseus at Paphos Archaeological Park: King Peleus stands beside Clotho (Klotho) as the spinner of fate attends the infant hero's destiny. One of the clearest ancient labels of Clotho by name in surviving floor art.