<P> Later in the Orphic cosmogony, first came Thesis (Disposer), whose ineffable nature is unexpressed . Ananke (necessity) is the primeval goddess of inevitability who is entwined with the time - god Chronos, at the very beginning of time . They represented the cosmic forces of Fate and Time, and they were called sometimes to control the fates of the gods . The three Moirai are daughters of Ananke . </P> <P> The Moirai were described as ugly old women, sometimes lame . They were severe, inflexible and stern . Clotho carries a spindle or a roll (the book of fate), Lachesis a staff with which she points to the horoscope on a globe, and Atropos (Aisa) a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, a pair of scales, or a cutting instrument . At other times the three were shown with staffs or sceptres, the symbols of dominion, and sometimes even with crowns . At the birth of each man they appeared spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of life . </P> <P> The Moirai were supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life, as in the story of Meleager and the firebrand taken from the hearth and preserved by his mother to extend his life . Bruce Karl Braswell from readings in the lexicon of Hesychius, associates the appearance of the Moirai at the family hearth on the seventh day with the ancient Greek custom of waiting seven days after birth to decide whether to accept the infant into the Gens and to give it a name, cemented with a ritual at the hearth . At Sparta the temple to the Moirai stood near the communal hearth of the polis, as Pausanias observed . </P> <P> As goddesses of birth who even prophesied the fate of the newly born, Eileithyia, the ancient Minoan goddess of childbirth and divine midwifery, was their companion . Pausanias mentions an ancient role of Eileythia as "the clever spinner", relating her with destiny too . Their appearance indicate the Greek desire for health which was connected with the Greek cult of the body that was essentially a religious activity . </P>

One of the three fates in greek mythology