Plural of Ate, the Greek goddess of mischief, ruin, and misdeed; or third-person singular of the verb 'eat' in archaic usage.
From Greek mythology, Ate was a goddess of ruin and folly. As a verb form, 'ates' comes from Old English 'etan,' representing early English verb conjugation patterns.
In Greek mythology, Ate was basically the goddess of 'oops'—she'd make people do stupid things that ruined their lives, and she had literal shackles that bound her actions.
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