Arachne

Arachne was a great mortal weaver.

Myth
Arachne was the daughter of Idmon of Colophon, who was a famous wool dyer in Tyrian purple. She was a fine weaver in Hypaepa of Lydia. She was as skillful as the finest artist of the day and much praise was given to her in Hypaepa, where she had her workshop.

This all went to her head and eventually Arachne became so conceited of her skill as a weaver that she began claiming that her skill was greater than that of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war as well as the arts. Athena was angered, but gave Arachne a chance to redeem herself. Assuming the form of an old woman, she warned Arachne not to offend the gods. Arachne scoffed and wished for a weaving contest, so she could prove her skill. Athena dropped her disguise and the contest began.

Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon that had inspired the people of Athens to name their city for her. According to Ovid's Latin narrative, Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the infidelity of the gods, disguised as animals:examples: Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, with Danaë.

Even Athena admitted that Arachne's work was immaculate. Her envy at such human competition drove her into uncontrolled fury and violence. Perhaps she was as well outraged at Arachne's disrespectful choice of subjects that displayed the failings and transgressions of the gods (this takes for granted a late, moralizing view of Greek myth). Losing her temper, she destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom, striking it with her shuttle, and struck Arachne on the head as well, slashing her face. Arachne, refusing to bow to Athena, hanged herself: “Nor could Arachne take such punishment: She'd rather hang herself than bow her head.” (The moralizing perspective suggests that she "realized her folly and was crushed with shame.").

In Ovid's telling, Athena took pity or spite on Arachne. Sprinkling her with the juices of aconite, Athena loosened the rope, which became a spider web, causing Arachne to lose her hair, her ears and nose, metamorphosing into a spider. "So you shall live to swing, to live now and forever, Even to the last hanging creature of your kind." The story suggests that the origin of weaving lay in imitation of spiders and that it was considered to have been perfected first in Asia Minor.

The Lightning Thief
While Arachne is never seen it is shown several times that children of Athena have a mortal fear of Arachne's children, spiders. Annabeth is so scared of spiders that she even has problems with anything that looks like them. When Ares sends Percy, Annabeth, and Grover to Waterland, they were attacked by tiny mrchanical spiders made byHephaestus. Later, when Annabeth is so entraced by a Sim City type game in The Lotus Hotel, Percy has to say the word "spider" to snap her out of her trance.