The Ivory Shoulder
As one of the Three Fates, Clotho assisted Hermes in creating the alphabet, forced the goddess Aphrodite into making love with other gods, killed the Titan Typhon with poison fruit, persuaded Zeus to kill Asclepius with a bolt of lightning, and aided the gods in their war with the Giants by killing Agrius and Thoas with bronze clubs. Clotho also used her life-giving powers in the myth of Tantalus, the god who had slain and prepared his son Pelops for a dinner party with other gods. When the other gods had found out what Tantalus had done, they put the remaining pieces of Pelops in a cauldron. Clotho brought him back to life, with the exemption of his eaten shoulder, which was replaced by a chunk of ivory. Tantalus was then thrust into Hades for what he had done to his own kin. Clotho was worshiped in many places in Greece as one of the Three Fates and is sometimes associated with the Keres and Erinyes, which are other deity groups in Greek mythology. Ariadne, the Greek goddess of fertility, is similar to Clotho in that she carries a ball of thread, much like Clotho’s spindle.
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