Plot
At around the time of World War I, a 21-year-old Irish woman named Niobe has a marriage arranged by her parents. Her husband-to-be is a 16-year-old boy named Cedric Kaftan. She considers him too immature, but can find no way out of the marriage. Although Niobe at first hates being married to Cedric, his good nature, kindheartedness, and desire to make her happy and keep her safe wins her over, and she falls in love with him. Cedric shows himself to be an intellectual prodigy. With some prodding and nurturing from his wife, Cedric accepts a scholarship to attend college and hone his magical abilities. He matures and finds his niche in magic and wetland studies, and he and Niobe have a child, Cedric Jr. A few years later, Cedric is assassinated by agents of Satan as part of a plot. Niobe petitions the Incarnations of Immortality to Cedric, only to he died because she was the target and Cedric died in her place. Niobe's anger at her husband's life being cut short makes her vow to make Satan pay.
She is invited to take the place of one of three women sharing a physical body as different aspects of the Incarnation of Fate. Eager to thwart Satan's plans and avenge Cedric, she leaves her child with Cedric's cousin and becomes Clotho, the youngest aspect of the Fates. The Fates weave the tapestry of life and have discretion over the length of human lives and the pattern they produce. Clotho, the youngest, spins the threads from the substance of Void to create souls, Lachesis, the middle aspect, measures the threads, and Atropos, the oldest, cuts the thread of each individual human. When she becomes Clotho, Niobe must journey to the edge of the Void without aid from the other Fates and replenish her stock of thread-material.
Because incarnations do not age, Niobe spends many years as Clotho. She frequently visits her son, Cedric Jr., who has befriended Cedric's younger cousin, Pacian. Because her lack of ageing would be noticed, she takes the form of the grandmotherly Atropos, pretending to be a concerned family friend. One day the Fates take the two boys to a fortune teller, who gives them disturbing news. Each of the boys are to marry the most beautiful women of their generation. Each marriage will produce a daughter who will oppose a tangle in the threads of life. One of the girls will marry Death, and the other is fated to marry Evil.
Pacian's daughter eventually weds Cedric Jr. but Pacian's wife dies at the wedding. Niobe realizes she is destined to marry Pacian and despite them both resisting, fall in love and wed after she leaves the office of Clotho. She gives birth to a daughter they name Orb. At around the same time, Cedric Jr., now a powerful magician, has a daughter named Luna. The girls grow up together under the magician's protection. One day, the girls and Niobe leave on a quest for powerful artifacts that will enhance their natural talents. Satan uses the opportunity to send demons against them; although he knows one of the girls is fated to marry him, he is not interested in a wife who is not evil. Niobe keeps the girls safe, and Satan's plot comes to nothing.
A year after the events of On a Pale Horse, the now middle-aged Niobe is again asked to join the Incarnation of Fate, this time as Lachesis. Satan has arranged that all three offices become vacant at the same time, making the Incarnation of Fate inexperienced in all three aspects simultaneously. The current officeholders hope to use Niobe's previous experience as an ace in the hole to thwart Satan's latest plot.
They learn that Satan plans to cause political turmoil in the UN by having one of his minions plant a stink bomb. They are forced to spend time investigating likely minions one by one, while in the meantime Satan offers ageing political candidates a chance at renewed youth and the chance to start over in their careers, in exchange for their resignation from office. He plans to replace them with his own minions who would work against Luna. Realizing that their inexperience is a liability, the Fates seek help. They learn that Niobe's magician son can help them. Unfortunately he is now in Hell. Satan cannot prevent them from searching for him, but he can make the quest very unpleasant and one of them must risk her own soul in the process. Niobe is worried that Satan will cheat, so she arranges for the Incarnation of War to supervise the contest.
Niobe leaves the Fates' collective body and goes to Hell. She must beat Satan's challenge—a puzzle-maze—to get the answers she needs. Eventually, she finds her son, but Satan has cast an illusion over him. She solves the puzzle anyway—and learns that Satan's plot can be stopped by Atropos. Satan's minions falsely believe their service will get them better treatment in hell. If Fate were to tell them truth and that Atropos will cut their lives short, they would no longer serve him. By issuing this threat, Niobe wins the game and is allowed to leave Hell freely.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai —often known in English as the Fates—were the personifications of destiny. They were three sisters: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Their Roman equivalent is the Parcae.
Clotho or Klotho, is a mythological figure. She is the youngest goddess of the Three Fates or Moirai. In ancient Greek mythology, she spins the thread of human life, her sisters draw out (Lachesis) and cut (Atropos) the thread. Her Roman equivalent is Nona. She also made major decisions, such as when a person was born, thus in effect controlling people's lives. This power enabled her not only to choose who was born, but also to decide when deities or mortals were to be saved or put to death. For example, Clotho resurrected Pelops when his father killed him.
Atropos, in Greek mythology, was the third of the Three Fates or Moirai, goddesses of fate and destiny. Her Roman equivalent was Morta.
Althaea or Althea was the queen of Calydon in Greek mythology.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Parcae were the female personifications of destiny who directed the lives of humans and gods. They are often called the Fates in English, and their Greek equivalent were the Moirai. They did not control a person's actions except when they are born, when they die, and how much they suffer.
Incarnations of Immortality is the name of an eight-book fantasy series by Piers Anthony. The books each focus on one of eight supernatural "offices" in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology. The series covers the adventures and struggles of a group of humans called "Incarnations", who hold these supernatural positions for a certain time.
In ancient Greek religion, Ananke, from the common noun ἀνάγκη, is the Orphic personification of inevitability, compulsion, and necessity. She is customarily depicted as holding a spindle. One of the Greek primordial deities, the births of Ananke and her brother and consort, Chronos, were thought to mark the division between the eon of Chaos and the beginning of the cosmos. Ananke is considered the most powerful dictator of fate and circumstance. Mortals and gods alike respected her power and paid her homage. She is also considered the mother of the Fates, hence she is thought to be the only being to overrule their decisions. According to Daniel Schowalter and Steven Friesen, she and the Fates "are all sufficiently tied to early Greek mythology to make their Greek origins likely."
Insomnia is a 1994 horror/fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King. It follows retired widower Ralph Roberts, whose increasing insomnia allows him to perceive auras and other hidden things, leading him to join a conflict between the forces of the Purpose and the Random. Like It and Dreamcatcher, the story is set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. It includes connections to other Stephen King stories, particularly his novel series The Dark Tower. Insomnia was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1994.
On a Pale Horse is a fantasy novel by Piers Anthony, first published in 1983. It is the first of eight books in the Incarnations of Immortality series. The book focuses on Zane, a photographer about to commit suicide who instead kills Death and must assume his office. The book spawned a five-issue comic series, released by Innovation Publishing from 1991 to 1993, but Innovation went out of business before releasing the sixth and final issue. It was also the inspiration for the television series, Dead Like Me, which worked on the premise that there are multiple Grim Reapers working the planet.
Lachesis, in ancient Greek religion, was the middle of the Three Fates, or Moirai; the others were her sisters, Clotho and Atropos. Normally seen clothed in white, Lachesis is the measurer of the thread spun on Clotho's spindle, and in some texts, determines Destiny, or thread of life. Her Roman equivalent was Decima. Lachesis was the apportioner, deciding how much time for life was to be allowed for each person or being. She measured the thread of life with her rod. She is also said to have chosen a person's destiny after a thread was measured. In mythology, it is said that she appears with her sisters within three days of a baby's birth to decide the baby's fate.
Bearing an Hourglass is a fantasy novel by Piers Anthony. It is the second of eight books in the Incarnations of Immortality series.
For Love of Evil is a fantasy novel by Piers Anthony. It is the sixth of eight books in the Incarnations of Immortality series.
And Eternity is a fantasy novel by Piers Anthony. It is the seventh of eight books in the Incarnations of Immortality series.
The Fates are a common motif in European polytheism, most frequently represented as a trio of goddesses. The Fates shape the destiny of each human, often expressed in textile metaphors such as spinning fibers into yarn, or weaving threads on a loom. The trio are generally conceived of as sisters and are often given the names Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, which are the names of the Moirai, the version of the Fates who appear in Greek mythology. These divine figures are often artistically depicted as beautiful maidens with consideration to their serious responsibility: the life of mortals. Poets, on the other hand, typically express the Fates as ugly and unwavering, representing the gravity of their role within the mythological and human worlds.
A triad, in a religious context, refers to a grouping of three gods, usually by importance or similar roles. A triad of gods were usually not considered to be one in the same being, or different aspects of a single deity as in a Trinity or Triple deity.
Atropos, or The Fates is one of the 14 Black Paintings painted by Francisco de Goya between 1819–1823. Goya, then 75 and in mental and physical despair, created the series directly onto the interior walls of the house known as the Quinta del Sordo, purchased in 1819.
Missa Atropos is the sixth studio album by Norwegian rock band Gazpacho. It was released in Norway on 15 September 2010 by HWT Records and worldwide on 22 March 2011 by Kscope.
Peasant Girl, spinning is the title given by nineteenth century American expatriate artist Elihu Vedder to an oil painting on canvas that depicts a young female figure spinning wool into thread. The work was completed in 1867 at the artist's studio in Via Margutta, Rome, and represents a slightly scaled up, slightly elaborated version of a theme Vedder had first developed in an oil sketch during the summer of the same year.
Mission Odyssey is a French-German animated TV series about the adventures of the ancient Greek hero Ulysses. The series is a production of BAF Berlin Animation Film GmbH & Co. Productions KG, Marathon Filmproduction, Marathon Animation, and M6 Metropole Television. Character design was created by David Gilson. Distributional rights were acquired in 2009 by the Your Family Entertainment AG, which is now holding indefinite broadcast rights including ancillary rights for almost all countries. Its global premiere took place on the French network M6 on 6 September 2002. In Germany, the show was launched on 22 February 2008 on KIKA.
