"Tell me,
why do you weep and grieve so sorely when you hear
the fate of the Argives, hear the fall of Troy?
That is the gods’ work, spinning threads of death
through the lives of mortal men,
and all to make a song for those to come."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 8, lines 646-651. Alcinous asks why Odysseus weeps at the minstrel Demodocus’ song about the fall of Troy and fate of the Greeks in the war to take the city. He explains that such tragedies are fated by the gods so that storytellers can sing about them. In a metaphor he compares gods who spin threads of death through the lives of humans to weavers.