Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate, although in some representations Zeus, the chief of the gods, is able to command them. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives, and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe.
Their number became fixed at three: Clotho ('spinner'), Lachesis ('allotter') and Atropos ('the unturnable', a metaphor for death). In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai ( / ˈ m ɔɪ r aɪ, - r iː/, also spelled Moirae or Mœræ Ancient Greek: Μοῖραι, 'lots, destinies, apportioners'), often known in English as the Fates ( Latin: Fata), were the incarnations of destiny their Roman equivalent was the Parcae (euphemistically the 'sparing ones'), and there are other equivalents in cultures that descend from the Proto-Indo-European culture. Late second-century Greek mosaic from the House of Theseus (at Paphos Archaeological Park, Cyprus), showing the three Moirai: Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, standing behind Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles
