Arachne - The First Spider - Coursework Example

Arachne’– The First Spider From a Greek Goddess to a Spider ID: Course: Professor: Word Count: 1,600 Outline Introduction A very famous Greco - Roman Mythological tale is of Arachne who was an excellent weaver. She was very proud of her skills and crafts and often used to boast about it, she even considered herself to be greater than Minerva who was the goddess of art, wisdom and intelligence. Upon the challenge of Goddess Minerva/Athena; Arachne entered a contest which could decide the superiority of skills between the two. This methodology discusses how the excellent skills of art and crafts started a war or competition between a great mortal weaver and the goddess of art. My aim in this paper is to study the classical tale of the legendary weaver and derive lesson from the research. To fulfill this aim, I have divided the study in to six sections. I start this study by presenting an overview or background of this classical mythological tale, followed by describing the characteristics of Minerva and Arachne. I will then move forward to elaborate the conflict that took the shape of a contest whose result left Arachne embarrassed and broken. I will try to highlight the beauty of this tale and what moral lesson one can derive from this classical description. I have tried to include some of the best artist’s work who were inspired by this tale and produced various art forms depicting the contest between Athena and Arachne and finally the consequences of the battle. I will conclude this essay by my own observation and remarks. The Background ‘Metamorphoses’, an epic poem by Ovid; dates back to around 8 AD. It narrates a story about a mortal lady whose name was Arachne, who was an excellent weaver and out of arrogance about her craft; she proclaimed that her weaving standard was far more superior to the crafts of the goddess of the art Minerva. Minerva, who is the daughter of the supreme god Zeus ;challenges Arachne to enter in a contest to prove her superiority and she held a condition that Arachne will never spin or weave again if she loses. When the contest ends, Arachne realizes her mistake and out of embarrassment hangs herself to death by committing suicide. Athena too realizes that she never meant to bring this rival that far and brings back Arachne to life but transform her in to a spider who weaves with her hands and legs. (Ovid 129-133). Minerva Minerva or Athena is a Greek goddess of Arts, wisdom, skill and war. It is believed that she came out of her fathers head, fully grown and there are yet many different version of her birth. Many artists in history have depicted this goddess and she is often pictured as a woman with full armor who carries a shield and a lance while her shield carries medusas head upon it. She is also depicted in paintings as the one who has an owl on one of her shoulder who happens to be symbolizing wisdom. One of her admiring characteristic is her compassion. Arachne Arachne is considered to be the first spider in Greek mythology, once a mortal girl excellent in her craft of weaving and spinning. So beautiful was her skills that nymphs from far off places used to visit her to see her working. She was gifted with the art of weaving and she studied for a while with Minerva, the Greek goddess. Arachne was the daughter of a shepherd who was a dyer. She is portrayed in the mythological tale as being exceptionally talented yet arrogant. The story is about the weaving of her own disastrous destiny when she loses a contest and commits suicide. The Conflict Arachne was a talented woman who learned the mastery of weaving from the Greek Goddess Athena or Minerva. At that time Greece was at peace and no war happened and Minerva used to teach the craft to Greek people .After learning the lessons, Arachne returned to her countryside in Lydia where she practiced and perfected her art from. She started weaving beautiful fabrics and her excellent weaving method became famous in many places. Her beautiful tapestry was a delight to watch for and nymphs from forests used to travel long distance just to examine and praise her weaving techniques. It so happened one day that one of the nymph asked Arachne about the source of her craft as they doubted if she learned the skills from the Goddess Minerva. Upon hearing this, Arachnes arrogance took over her and she declined having learned any skills from the goddess. She declared that there could be no one in the entire heaven or earth that could possibly match her talent and craft and she never needed a teacher to teach her the techniques of excellent weaving. This news soon, reached Athenas ears and she was furious to know the arrogance of her student . She disguised herself as an old woman and met Arachne at her home. She wanted to give Archane, a chance to redeem herself and thus she confronted her and said that wisdom is followed by age and experience and one must not offend Gods, recognize the power of the one who helps those people who acknowledge and honor Gods. She further advised her that none of the work by a human is perfect, it requires constant improvement. But all in vain, as Arachne was so aroused with her arrogance and pride that she furiously declared that she doesn’t need any advice and probably the old woman is insane, and it is most certain that Athena is hiding to take a challenge to prove who really the best one is. On her announcement, Goddess Athena revealed her true identity and accepted Arachne’s challenge and told her that this would be a fair contest where the God of Envy will be the judge. On the day of challenge, two large looms were set and both started to play with their respective fingers to weave out the tapestry. Athena chose to portray all Gods and Goddesses in their magnificent glory and placed them right at the center of her masterpiece. She showcased the Gods in the Acropolis, Poseidon striking the mountains by his trident in order to create a stream and other fine equipments. She weaved out some figures of the mortal beings that were displaying their ignorance and surrounded by the centre image. She also gave a hint to her rival by showing girls changing in to a chicken. She also displayed branches of Olive tree which were a gift to the city of Athens by her. Arachne, on her canvas displayed grave disrespect to God and Goddesses, she displayed Zeus engaged in martial infidelities, she showed Dionysius as a drunkard and Apollo as lowly shepherd. She decorated her work with beautiful borders of ivy and other flowers. It was very difficult to decide which work was better. On viewing Arachne’s courage and disrespect, Athena slapped her and Arachne realized her mistake; and what grave sin she committed. In her grief moment and self depreciation, she committed suicide by hanging herself to death. This troubled Athena as she never meant to make things this worse. Athena, as being a Goddess; decided to give back life to Arachne but not as a human being, but as a Spider and let her weave the web all her life. She sprinkled the juice of a herb called Monks head and Arachne came back to life but transformed in to a spider. Artist’s impressions This is a classical Greco-Roman Mythological tale and hence, many artists have displayed the story of Arachne, the first spider through various paintings and sculptures. They have used strong mediums to project the morale behind this story. Fig-1.1 Painting (1555-1630) by Antonio Tempesta. Minerva is being portrayed as the more aggressive one, pointing finger directly at Arachne’s eyes. Fig. 1.2- Painting by Jacobo Tintoretto in 1544. Depicting weaving competition between Minerva and Arachne. Conclusion By the end of the story, one may be left with a hint of confusion as to whether Mervina was sparing Arachnes life or was making sure that she gets punished severely and that she could not accepted the fact that Arachne could get away with the crime she did by just murdering herself. May be Athena wanted Arachne to suffer even more than just death. On one side, Arachne is arrogant and disrespectful but on the other hand it seems that Athena is a Goddesses but she is egoistic yet there is a godly side which is also scary. Story by Ovid is a lesson for any one in any time period that one must be humble and responsible towards his art. He should be respectful towards those who hold a better position than him in terms of crafts or skills. Arrogance is dangerous and so is egoism. In my perspective, both are at fault. If Arachne was a mere mortal girl who was arrogant and challenged God, it was her biggest mistake but Athena, being a Goddess was not even aware of anybodys feelings , she was more self centric and decided to punish Arachne in a severe manner by transforming her in to a spider , who hangs upside down and weaves a web. Arachne gets the punishment all her life by hanging and spinning through but on the other side; Athena loses her respect as a Goddess because godly figures are meant to be forgiving and merciful not ruthless and self centered. References- Ovid, . Metamorphoses. chapter-6. 129-133. Print. Read More