Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Lachesis.
The gallery
The Three Fates (Flemish tapestry)
Unknown, c. 1510–1520
A Flemish tapestry of the early sixteenth century, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It shows the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, standing in triumph over the prostrate figure of Chastity, an allegory of the Triumph of Death drawn from Petrarch's poem 'The Triumphs'. Lachesis, the apportioner who measures the thread of each life, stands among her sisters at the centre of the scene.
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. Lachesis, the Measurer, works the allotted length — fate as court allegory, the Moirai blessing a mortal reign.
The Three Fates
Attributed to Il Sodoma, c. 1525
A High Renaissance image of the Moirai attributed to Il Sodoma: three women with distaff, measure and shears. Lachesis stands in the middle office of fate — neither spinning the first thread nor cutting the last, but allotting how long each life may run.
The Three Fates
Paul Thumann, c. 1880
Thumann's popular Salon image distinguishes the sisters sharply: Atropos with shears, young Clotho at the weave, and modest Lachesis measuring with sprigs in hand. The Measurer of lots becomes the calm centre of a print that circulated across nineteenth-century Europe.
Atropos (The Fates)
Francisco Goya, 1820–1823
One of Goya's Black Paintings, now in the Prado: the Moirai float in darkness with scissors and thread. Lachesis shares the air with her sisters — allotment and cutting fused into a single nightmare of destiny above the sleeping world.