The Weird Sisters, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, are arguably the most famous trio of witches in English literature. Shakespeare's Weird Sisters are a complex trinitarian mythological construction - a unique amalgamation of classical, folkloric, and socio-political elements. This book is an archetypal exploration of the Weird Sisters; by examining this feminine trio through the lens of mythology, new insights about their significance may be understood. The ramifications extend from classical comprehension to twenty-first century pop culture observations related to female trios. The Weird Sisters, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, are arguably the most famous trio of witches in English literature. Shakespeare's Weird Sisters are a complex trinitarian mythological construction - a unique amalgamation of classical, folkloric, and socio-political elements. This book is an archetypal exploration of the Weird Sisters; by examining this feminine trio through the lens of mythology, new insights about their significance may be understood. The ramifications extend from classical comprehension to twenty-first century pop culture observations related to female trios. Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Variations On Stage Through Time 2 Overview: Archetypal Exploration 3 The Impact on the Modern Definition of Women 4 The Weyward Path 6 Chapter One: From Goddess To Witch 8 Penned By Whom? Questions of Textual Interpolation 8 Goddesses of Destiny, Nymphs, Fairies and Sibyls 9 The Etymology of "Weird" 14 The Transformation to Witch 18 King James I 18 Female Witches as Scapegoats: Center Stage 25 Shakespeare's Weird Sisters as Tricksters 29 Shakespeare, The Weird Sisters and Mimesis 30 Shakespeare's Ambivalence Towards Witchcraft in Macbeth 32 Chapter Two: Hecate, the Triple Goddess, and Macbeth 34 An Anglo-Saxon/Greco-Roman Cosmology 35 Artemis/Diana and Hecate 37 Hecate and Triangulations 38 Previous Allusions to Hecate 40 Both "Pale Hecate" and "Black Hecate" 41 The Weird Sisters as Hecate 42 Profile of the Weird Sisters' Scenes 43 Aspects of Hecate, Scene by Scene 50 Conclusion 68 Chapter Three: Related Female Threesomes in Myths and Fairy Tales 70 "Creatures of Elder World": Related Archetypal Female Trios and Figures 70 "Goddesses of Destinie": Trios Related to Prophecy 71 Trios Related to Inspiration 78 Trios Related to the Underworld 79 Related Prophetic and Magical Female Figures in Classical Mythology 82 "Or else some nymphs or feiries": Fairy Tale Figures 85 Conflation of Witches, Fairies and Nymphs 89 Spinning, Witchcraft, Fairies and the Archetypal Feminine 90 Shakespeare's Weird Sisters and the Number Three 94 Final Calculation 97 Chapter Four: Flourish, Exeunt 98 Theoretical Conclusions 98 The Modern Resonance of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters 100 Sisterhood 105 The Weyward Path 106 Notes 107 Bibliography 117 Index 127