Lachesis

Second of the three Moirai, the Fates who apportion every mortal life: Klotho spins the thread, Lachesis measures it, Atropos cuts it. Her name means 'the apportioner' or 'the allotter,' from lanchanō ('to obtain by lot'). Hesiod gives the Moirai twice — once as fatherless daughters of Night (Hes. *Theog.* 217–222), and again as daughters of Zeus and Themis, sisters of the Seasons, to whom Zeus gave the highest honour (Hes. *Theog.* 904–906). In Plato's myth of Er the three sit at the cosmic Spindle of Necessity, Lachesis singing of what has been (Pl. *Rep.* 10.617c).