Three

Hellenic religion

• Three appears in Fate.

  Pausanias records cults of the Fates in Greek cities. The triplicity is a traveler’s report of cult, not Hesiod’s genealogy of the Moirai.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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• Three is associated with Fate.

  Hesiod names the Moirai as daughters who allot. Three here is a Theogony count, not a Vedic triad of fires.

  from Hesiod · Theogony, c. 700 BCE

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• Three appears in Hellenic religion.

  Pausanias names threes among cult groups—Graces, Fates neighbors, triple dedications—inside Hellenic sanctuary speech. A named three in that periegesis, not three→fate alone and not every triad dump.

  from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE

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Vedic tradition

• Three is associated with Fire.

  Vedic ritual knows a set of sacrificial fires. Three here is a ritual architecture, not the Moirai.

  from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older

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• Vedic tradition contains Three.

  Vedic poetry works with grouped threes (fires, worlds, strides). The count is a poetic-ritual habit, not a Greek fate-triad.

  from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older

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Hermeticism

• Three appears in Hermeticism.

  Hermes Trismegistus is “thrice-great” in later naming. The three is a title’s boast, not a cosmological law of triads.

  from Brian P. Copenhaver (translation) · Corpus Hermeticum, c. 2nd–3rd century CE (Greek treatises)

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Norse tradition

• Three appears in Fate.

  Snorri’s Gylfaginning names three Norns at Urðarbrunnr who allot fate. The triplicity is Norse mythic allotment, not Pausanias’s Greek cult report and not Yggdrasil’s three roots.

  from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

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• Three appears in Norse tradition.

  Snorri’s Gylfaginning seats threes among the world-tree’s roots and the wells of that cosmology. A named three in that prose, not three-fate as the fate-count already walked and not norn as the fate-women already walked.

  from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

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• Tree is associated with Three.

  Snorri gives Yggdrasil three roots reaching toward different worlds. The three is a structural count in that prose, not the Greek Moirai.

  from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

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Chinese tradition

• Three appears in Chinese tradition.

  Wilhelm’s Yijing builds each trigram from three lines. A named three-count in that classic’s figure grammar, not the Trinity and not a bare small-integer dump.

  from Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes (translation) · I Ching (Yijing), Wilhelm 1924; Baynes English 1950

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Buddhist traditions

• Three appears in Buddhist traditions.

  Watson’s Lotus Sūtra seats the three vehicles — śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva carts of the burning-house parable — as the provisional count before the one. Three in that doctrinal count, not a bare triad dump and not Christian Trinity.

  from Burton Watson (translation) · The Lotus Sutra, 1993 (this translation); Sanskrit/Chinese recensions much older

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• Third is used in Three.

  In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, from a shadow mixture one makes three kinds of drapery — purple, violet, and the third white — the third is the white drapery of that three-kind set.

  from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century

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• Vesica piscis is used in Three.

  In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems, three letters are set into the cross and enclosed in the form of the vesica piscis — the vesica encloses that three-letter monogram.

  from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

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• Fortnight is used in Three.

  In Beeton’s Book of Household Management, dinner-party cards should be issued a fortnight or three weeks beforehand — a fortnight-to-three-weeks is that invitation lead.

  from Isabella Beeton · Book of Household Management, 1861

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• Fiftieth is used in Three.

  In the Handbook of Soap Manufacture, sulphuric acid equal to one-fiftieth of the total fat originally taken is added to promote separation — the fiftieth is that acid cut of the fat charge.

  from W. H. Simmons & H. A. Appleton · The Handbook of Soap Manufacture, PD Gutenberg #21724

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