Arachne
This story has been created as a part of the Future School 9th grade Mythology Project, April 2018.
Arachne
This is one of the myths from Greek mythology. This story talks about why we should not brag about ourselves or think too highly of our talents, and how this might get us into trouble.
Once there lived a very talented weaver called Arachne. She was famous throughout the world and she believed was the best and finest weaver that ever was. So she challenged the goddess Athena, who is the goddess of many talents and crafts, to compete with her. She wanted to prove that she was indeed the better weaver.
Listening to Arachne bragging, Athena got extremely angry. So Athena accepted the challenge to compete with her, hopping to teach her a good lesson. Then Athena sent Arachne a message of warning which was contained in a piece of weaving. Athena wove into this cloth four stories where humans who thought they were equal to the gods and were boasting, got punished later.
In response Arachne wove back four stories where gods have punished humans without good reasons. She did not weave the gods properly, meaning with bad lighting and with furious faces. Though what she wove wasnt nice, it was exceedingly well done.
After sending all the messages, they had a real contest between them to see who was the better weaver. They had a deal that whoever loses the contest should never weave again, with a spindle or wool, in their entire life.
Eventually Arachne won the contest, but Athena was still angry with her and she turned her into a spider so she could continue weaving again, but without a spindle or wool.
And that is why spiders are called arachnids.