Mythology is filledwith stories of mortals who dare to challengethe gods. Sometimes the gods are amused by these challenges;sometimes they are understanding; sometimes they are angry.Arachne [g rak'ne] is a young girl who dares to challenge Athena.

Retold byOlivia Coolidge

ArachneArachne was a maiden who became fa-

mous throughout Greece, though she wasneither wellborn nor beautiful and came fromno great city. She lived in an obscure littlevillage, and her father was a humble dyer ofwool. In this he was very skillful, producingmany varied shades, while above all he wasfamous for the clear, bright scarlet which ismade from shellfish, and which was the mostglorious of all the colors used in ancientGreece. Even more skillful than her father wasArachne. It was her task to spin the fleecywool into a fine, soft thread and to weave itinto cloth on the high-standing loom1 withinthe cottage. Arachne was small and pale frommuch working. Her eyes were light and herhair was a dusty brown, yet she was qUickand graceful, and her fingers, roughened asthey were, went so fast that it was hard tofollowtheir flickering movements. So soft and

1. high-standing loom: large. free-standing machinefor weaving thread into cloth.

even was her thread, so fine her cloth, so gor-geous her embroidery, that soon her productswere known allover Greece. No one had everseen the like of them before.

At last Arachne's fame became so greatthat people used to come from far and wideto watch her working. Even the gracefulnymphs would steal in from stream or for-est and peep shyly through the dark door-way, watching in wonder the white arms ofArachne as she stood at the loom and threwthe shuttle2 from hand to hand between thehanging threads, or drew out the long wool,fine as a hair, from the distaff3 as she satspinning. "Surely Athena herself must havetaught her," people would murmur to one an-other. "Whoelse could know the secret of suchmarvelous skill?"

2. shuttle: device on the loom that moves the threadback and forth through the thread that runs up anddown.3. distaff: stick that holds the cotton or wool before itis pulled thin into thread.

Arachne was used to being wondered at,and she was immensely proud of the skill thathad brought so many to look on her. Praisewas all she lived for, and it displeased hergreatly that people should think anyone, evena goddess, could teach her anything. There-forewhen she heard them murmur, she wouldstop her work and turn round indignantly4 tosay, "With my own ten fingers I gained thisskill, and by hard practice from earlymorningtill night. I never had time to stand lookingas you people do while another maidenworked. Nor if I had, would I give Athenacredit because the girl was more skillful thanI.As forAthena's weaving, how could there befiner cloth or more beautiful embroidery thanmine? If Athena herself were to come downand compete with me, she could do no betterthan I."

One day when Arachne turned round withsuch words, an old woman answered her, agray old woman, bent and very poor, whostood leaning on a staff and peering at Arach-ne amid the crowd of onlookers. "Recklessgirl,"she said, "how dare you claim to be equalto the immortal gods themselves? I am an oldwoman and have seen much. Take my adviceand ask pardon ofAthena foryour words. Restcontent with your fame ofbeing the best spin-ner and weaver that mortal eyes have everbeheld."

"Stupid old woman," said Arachne indig-nantly, "who gave you a right to speak in thisway to me? It is easy to see that you werenever good for anything in your day, or youwould not come here in poverty and rags togaze at my skill. IfAthena resents my words,let her answer them herself. I have challengedher to a contest, but she, of course, will notcome. It is easy for the gods to avoid matchingtheir skill with that of men."

At these words the oldwoman threw downher staff and stood erect. The wondering on-lookers saw her grow tall and fair and standclad in long robes of dazzling white. Theywereterribly afraid as they realized that they stoodin the presence of Athena. Arachne herselfflushed red for a moment, for she had neverreally believed that the goddess would hearher. Before the group that was gathered thereshe would not give in; so pressing her palelips together in obstinacy5 and pride, she ledthe goddess to one of the great looms and setherself before the other. Without a word bothbegan to thread the long woolen strands thathang from the rollers, and between which theshuttle moves back and forth. Many skeins6

lay heaped beside them to use, bleachedwhite, and gold, and scarlet, and othershades, varied as the rainbow. Arachne hadnever thought of giving credit for her successto her father's skill in dyeing, though in actualtruth the colors were as remarkable as thecloth itself.

Soon there was no sound in the room butthe breathing of the onlookers, the whirringof the shuttles, and the creaking of thewooden frames as each pressed the thread upinto place or tightened the pegs by which thewholewas held straight. The excited crowd inthe doorwaybegan to see that the skill of bothin truth was very nearly equal, but that, how-ever the cloth might turn out, the goddess wasthe qUicker of the two. A pattern of manypictures was growing on her loom. There wasa border of twined branches of the olive,Athe-na's favorite tree, while in the middle, figuresbegan to appear. As they lookedat the glOWingcolors, the spectators realized that Athenawas weaving into her pattern a last warning

5. obstinacy: stubbornness.6. skeins [skanz]: strands of yarn coiled into bundles.ready for weaving.

to Arachne. The central figure was the god-dess herself competing with Poseidon for pos-session of the city of Athens; but in the fourcorners were mortals who had tried to strivewith gods and pictures of the awful fate thathad overtaken them. The goddess ended a lit-tle before Arachne and stood back from hermarvelous work to see what the maiden wasdoing.

Never before had Arachne been matchedagainst anyone whose skill was equal, or evennearly equal to her own. As she stole glancesfrom time to time at Athena and saw the god-dess working sWiftly, calmly, and always alittle faster than herself, she became angry in-stead of frightened, and an evil thought cameinto her head. Thus as Athena stepped backa pace to watch Arachne finishing her work,she saw that the maiden had taken for herdesign a pattern of scenes which showed evilor unworthy actions of the gods, how they haddeceived fair maidens, resorted to trickery,and appeared on earth from time to time inthe form of poor and humble people. Whenthe goddess saw this insult glowing in bright

colors on Arachne's loom, she did not waitwhile the cloth was judged, but stepped for-ward, her gray eyes blazing with anger, andtore Arachne's work across. Then she struckArachne across the face. Arachne stood therea moment, struggling with anger, fear, andpride. "I will not live under this insult," shecried, and seizing a rope from the wall, shemade a noose and would have hanged herself.

The goddess touched the rope and touchedthe maiden. "Live on, wicked girl," she said."Liveon and spin, both you and your descend-ants. When men look at you they may remem-ber that it is not wise to strive with Athena."At that the body ofArachne shriveled up; andher legs grew tiny, spindly, and distorted.There before the eyes of the spectators hunga little dusty brown spider on a slenderthread.

All spiders descend from Arachne, and asthe Greeks watched them spinning theirthread wonderfully fine, they remembered thecontest with Athena and thought that it wasnot right for even the best of men to claimequality with the gods.