Clotho

in Classic mythology. One of the Three Fates. She presided over birth, and drew from her distaff the thread of life, Atropos presided over death and cut the thread of-life, and Lachesis spun the fate of life between birth and death. (Greek, klótho, to draw thread from a distaff.)

“A France slashed asunder with Clotho-scissors and civil war”—Carlyle. (This is an erroneous allusion. It was Atropos who cut the thread.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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