PASSAGES

GALLERY

OVERVIEW

Arachne

Woman into Spider

 

The best weaver in the world, Arachne boasts that she’s even better than the goddess Minerva. A contest ensues. While the quality of Arachne’s work is beyond dispute, her tapestry depicts the gods taking animal (and other) form to have sex with human women. Enraged, Minerva destroys the work.

 

A boxen shuttle, grasping in her hand,

Thrice on the forehead of th' Idmonian maid

She struck. No more Arachné, hapless bore,

But twisted round her neck with desperate pride

A cord. The deed Minerva pitying saw

And check'd her rash suspension.—“Impious wretch!

“Still live,” she cry'd, “but still suspended hang;

“Curs'd to futurity, for all thy race,

“Thy sons and grandsons, to the latest day

“Alike shall feel the sentence.” Speaking thus,

The juice of Hecat's baleful plant she throws:

Instant besprinkled by the noxious drops,

Her tresses fall; her nose and ears are lost;

Her body shrinks; her head is lessen'd more;

Her slender fingers root within her sides,

Serving as legs; her belly forms the rest;

From whence her thread she still derives and spins:

Her art pursuing in the spider's shape.