Women of the Wheel: Clotho the Spinner
Womanica
Acast Creative Studios
4.3 • 920 Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clotho is a figure from ancient Greek mythology. The youngest of the Three Fates, or Moirai, she spins the thread of human life that decides a soul’s destiny at birth.
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This month, we’re talking about Women of the Wheel – icons who turned motion into momentum and spun their legacies on spokes, skates and potter’s wheels. These women harnessed the power of the axle, pushing their crafts and professions forward through their works and lives.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're talking |
| 0:09.8 | about women of the wheel, icons who turned motion into momentum and spun their legacies on spokes, |
| 0:15.3 | skates, and potter's wheels. These women harness the power of the axle, pushing their crafts and professions forward through their works and lives. |
| 0:24.7 | Today's womanikin spins the yarn of life on her wheel. |
| 0:28.4 | Slowly, carefully, she weaves the greatest decisions of mortal lives into their very thread. |
| 0:34.0 | Then she passes it off to her sisters. |
| 0:36.8 | One draws the thread out, and the other cuts it clean. |
| 0:40.3 | Today we're talking about clotho, the spinner, and her sisters. |
| 0:44.3 | Please welcome the three fates. |
| 0:51.3 | The three fates may have appeared in ancient Grecian pottery as early as the 6th century |
| 0:59.8 | B.C.E. Together, they're referred to as the Moirai. In ancient Greek, their name roughly translates |
| 1:07.0 | to allotters. These goddesses assign each person their fate at birth. |
| 1:14.9 | The first step in deciding a person's fate falls to Clotho, also known as the spinner. |
| 1:21.7 | On Grecian vases, she's often shown holding a spindle. |
| 1:26.1 | She pulls at a long dark thread she's spun that represents a new |
| 1:29.4 | being's lifetime. Clotho's sister, Lachesis, determines the length of a life. She's referred to as |
| 1:36.6 | the apportioner of lots. After the thread is measured, the final sister, Atropos, cuts it, |
| 1:43.6 | ending the life with the snip of her scissors. |
| 1:47.2 | Spinning was often seen as a feminine task and associated with homemaking and child rearing. |
| 1:54.7 | Clotho was also a goddess of birth, present at the birth of a child and responsible for spinning |
| 1:59.8 | their life thread. The parentage of the three fates is debated. |
| 2:03.6 | In Plato's Republic, the philosopher claims that the fates are daughters of a goddess of inevitability or necessity. |
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