Arachne

Gustave Doré. Arachne (illustration to Dante's Purgatorio).

In Greco-Roman mythology, Arachne ( /əˈrækniː/) was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategy. Arachne refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from the goddess. Offended by Arachne's arrogance, Athena 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 brown 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.

Influence

Velázquez' "The Spinners, or The fable of Arachne"

From arachne are derived the taxonomical class name Arachnida, and the name for spiders in many romance languages.

The metamorphosis of Arachne in Ovid's telling furnished material for an episode in Edmund Spenser's mock-heroic Muiopotmos, 257-352.^[3] Spenser's adaptation, which "rereads an Ovidian story in terms of the Elizabethan world"^[4] is designed to provide a rationale for the hatred of Arachne's descendent Aragnoll for the butterfly-hero Clarion.

The tale of Arachne inspired one of Velázquez' most interesting paintings: Las Hilanderas ("The Spinners, or The fable of Arachne", in the Prado), in which the painter represents the two important moments of the myth. In the front, the contest of Arachne and the goddess (the young and the old weaver), in the back, an Abduction of Europa that is a copy of Titian's version (or maybe of Rubens' copy of Titian). In front of it appears Minerva in the moment she is punishing Arachne. It transforms the myth into a reflection about creation and imitation, god and man, master and pupil (and therefore about the nature of art).

In popular culture

• Gustave Doré's depiction of Arachne was used in the marketing and posters for Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1968 cult film Fando y Lis.

• In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, she is pictured as a grotesque, half-woman, half-spider monster who nested on people to produce killer spiders.

• Arachne is the central character in the 2011 novel, The Spider Goddess by Tara Moss.

• In an episode of the animated series, Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? called "The Tigress," the Chief summarizes the events of the legend.

• Gustave Doré's rendition of Arachne is one of the many recurring images used by the rock band, The Mars Volta. It has been used as a record cover for them, a backdrop for their live shows, and a favorite accessory for guitarist and composer Omar Rodríguez-López in the form of a belt buckle.

• In the modern classic fantasy The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, a plain brown spider is bewitched into believing that she is Arachne until the witch who enchanted her is killed.

• Many fantasy-themed video games, such as Castlevania and Devil Summoner, features Arachne along with other mythological creatures as either common enemies or as mighty "boss" monsters.

• In Class of the Titans, Arachne is a spider who makes a deal with Cronus to become human again. Cronus does not hold up the end of his bargain though and betrays her after getting her to trap the heroes for him. After being berated by Atlanta, Athena turns Arachne back into a human, for her to live at the Olympus High School, weaving for the gods.

• Arachne is the name used by the second Spider Woman (Julia Carpenter) to distinguish herself from Jessica Drew, the original Spider Woman.

• Arachne, is one of the main villains in Soul Eater, in which she is a powerful witch who crafted the first demon weapons, escaped from Death and rested for 800 years. She returned to raising Arachnaphobia, her personal army against Death.

• Arachne is the inspiration for a character featured in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

• Arachne is the nom de plume for one the UK Guardian Cryptic Crossword setters.

• In the 13th episode from season 6 of Supernatural, "Unforgiven," the monster of the week is an arachne.

• Arachne is an inspiration to the hero "Arachna" in the video game Heroes of Newerth.

Notes

References

Primary sources

• Ovid, Metamorphoses vi.1-145
• Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia vii.56.196

Secondary sources

• Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898) (13.23)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arachne

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arachne". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.