This summer I find myself identifying with Arachne. 

I have been rereading Metamorphoses, Ovid’s brilliant epic poem, a collection of Greek myths linked by the theme of metamorphosis. Now that we’re living in environmental hell, I turn to playful Ovid. I am enchanted by the twists and turns and loopy cleverness of his Latin hexameters.

The gods are envious. Duck and cover.  It’s best not to attract attention. Minerva, a master weaver, becomes a snarling Virago when she hears that Arachne, a human woman, is a brilliant weaver, as great as Minerva. The awed nymphs have deserted Mt.Tmolus and the banks of the Pactolus to watch Arachne at work. (That would make Arachne a performance artist, wouldn’t it?)

Ovid observes: scires a Pallade doctam (“You would know that she was taught by Pallas Athena.”)  Minerva angrily denies this and challenges Arachne to a contest.  Arachne is so confident (hubristic) that she doesn’t realize that she should lose on purpose. Arachne, I hear you!

In a small way,  I understand this level of competition. I won the Latin Prize in college, and this did not bring joy to the men in the department.

BACK TO MINERVA AND ARACHNE…

Minerva is a great weaver-artist, but her work is derivative. One could say she is a classical artist-weaver. Arachne, on the other hand, is a radical artist who dares to criticize the actions of gods, focusing here on Jupiter’s decadent deceptions and rapes of women. (Since Jupiter is Minerva’s father, perhaps this subject isn’t wise.) In her weaving and embroidery, Arachne tells the myths of Europa, who is tricked by Jupiter in the form of a bull; Asterie and Leda, tricked by Jupiter in the form of birds; Antiope, deceived by Jupiter disguised as a satyr; Alcmena, deceived by Zeus disguised as her husband; Danae, cheated by him in the form of gold; Aegina, in the form of fire; Mnemosyne, in the form of a shepherd; and Proserpina, who, by the way, was also Jupiter’s daughter, in the form of a snake.

So who wins the competition?  Minerva finds no fault with Arachne’s opus, but she strikes Arachne s with a shuttle.  Arachne, a great artist, has now been beaten up and is suicidal. Minerva softens and turns her into a spider.

 I’m not sure this metamorphosis was a gift. I spent three weeks in the Infectious Disease ward of a hospital once after I was bitten by a spider.

Later, rash Ovid was exiled for carmen et error (a poem and an error). Wasn’t Arachne “exiled” for the same thing? He and Arachne were both artists… I wonder how he felt about her.