The witches, and their 'filthy' trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play.Īrtists in the eighteenth century, including Henry Fuseli and William Rimmer, depicted the witches variously, as have many directors since. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. Shakespeare's witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, and predict his ascent to kingship. Other possible sources, aside from Shakespeare, include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland's Daemonologie, the Witch of Endor from the Bible, the Norns of Norse mythology, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae. Their origin lies in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology. The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (c. Scene from Macbeth, depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I.

Macbeth witches