The original functions of the differentiated Moirai, ∧άχεσις, Κλωθώ, ῞Ατροπος, can now be explained. They have been referred by later Greeks and modern scholars to the past, present, and future (a reference which has some justification in the names of the Norns, Urðr, Verðandi, Skuld) or in the reverse order. The names lend no support to either. Their activities were originally, we may suggest, first the assigning of the portion, the λάχος or μοĩρα, by ∧άχεσις with scales as by Zeus with his, then the spinning of it by Κλωθώ, and lastly the binding or weaving of it by ῞Ατροπος. Apart from the evidence already adduced, Aeschylus provides confirmation that the λάχος was the wool to be spun:

Klotho's part in the process is clear in her name. The fate has thus been allotted and made up, spun. Its bringing, fastening to the victim, i.e. the binding (or weaving) process, and ῞Ατροπος, ‘she who cannot be turned’ aside or backward, remain. Antipho speaks of τῆς τύχης…ἣν οὔτʾ ἄν ἐγὼ οὔτʾ ἄλλος οὐδεὶς οἷός τʾ ἄν εἴη ἀποτρέψαι μὴ οὐ γενέσθαι ἥντινα δεĩ ἑκάστῳ, and an inscription of the ἀμε(τά)τροπα δῶρα of Τύχη. We have seen that the ‘gifts’ of Zeus or the Μοĩραι are threads.