what are the three witches in macbeth called
Three Witches The Three Witches or Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (c. 1603â€“1607). They hold a striking resemblance to the three "Fates" (in Greek mythology), and are, perhaps, intended as a twisted version of the white-robed incarnations of destiny. The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise. Their origin lies in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare's imagination itself, include British folklore, such contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's Daemonologie, the Norns of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae. Productions of Macbeth began incorporating portions of Thomas Middleton's contemporaneous play, The Witch, circa 1618, two years after Shakespeare's death.