Martinez 1

Marleen Martinez
9th grade English
Ms.Schonert
17, January 2012
Arachne the Goddess of Weaving
Theres many stories about mythology but one of them is about Arachne goddess of weaving.
Arachne was a young woman from an ancient region on the coast of western Asian Minor called Lydia,
People sometimes said she was a Princess, who offended Athena because she said that she was a better
weaver than her and suffered the consequences by becoming a spider.
Arachnes story starts when people commented that she must have been trained by Athena
herself, but she ignored and exclaimed that Athena herself could not do better than her in weaving.
Then Athena heard and she disguised herself as an old lady. Athena went to warned her to be careful in
not to be offending the gods, but Arachne told the old lady -not knowing that it was Athena- to save her
breath. Arachne welcomed Athena to the contest and if she lost, she would suffer whatever punishment
the god deemed (chose). The goddess accepted the challenge and then they were both weaving, when
they finished Athena agreed with everyone that she did a beautiful job, yet she was still mad that she
touched Arachnes forehead making sure that she felt full guilt, then Arachne couldnt handle it
anymore that she hanged herself that she died and

Athena find out that she killed herself and she

survived her again and turned her into a spider to make sure she will suffer and never be offending a
god or goddess.
Arachne was important for her weaving skills. She also told people that her weaving skills were
better than Athenas. In this story theres a lesson that you shouldnt boast to other people. For example
when she was saying that she was better than Athena all she got for that at the end was to suffer the
consequences she caused.

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Works Cited
Fuller, Edmund. York Bulfinchs Mythology. New: Dell Publishing, 1959: 91-93.
Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1998: 193,
194.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Central Publishing: Edith Hamilton, 1942