Arachne

&nbsp In Greco-Roman mythology, Arachne (pronounced /əˈrækni/) was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Minerva, the Latin parallel of Pallas Athena, goddess of crafts. Arachne refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from the goddess. The offended goddess set a contest between the two weavers. According to Ovid,[1] the goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry and the mortal weaver's success, and perhaps offended by the girl's choice of subjects (the loves and transgressions of the gods), that she destroyed the tapestry and loom and slashed the girl's face. “Not even Pallas nor blue-fevered Envy \ Could damn Arachne's work. \ The gold haired goddess Raged at the girl's success, struck through her loom, Tore down the scenes of wayward joys in heaven.″[2] Ultimately, the goddess turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne simply means "spider" (ἀράχνη) in Greek.

Sources

The fable of Arachne (also Arachné) is a late addition to Greco-Roman mythology. The myth does not appear in the repertory of the Attic vase-painters. It is narrated in Ovid's Metamorphoses (vi.5-54 and 129-145) and mentioned in Virgil's Georgics (iv. 246). As these sources are all Roman, they identified the goddess as Minerva.

According to Pliny's Natural History[3] she discovered the use of linen as well as nets. Pliny reports that she had a son named Closter who discovered the spindle for spinning wool.

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.[4] 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,[5] the goddess of wisdom and war as well as the weaving 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: 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.