"There in the future he must suffer all that Fate
and the overbearing Spinners spun out on his life line
the very day his mother gave him birth."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 7, lines 232-234. Alcinous, speaking about Odysseus, says that what happens in a person’s life is pre-determined and cannot be changed. In a metaphor, he compares the Fates to weavers and Odysseus’ life to a thread that they finished spinning the day he was born. The Greek Fates, or Moirai, were three ancient weaving goddesses who spun out the thread of life for mortals at their birth.