S1E5 - Arachne the Weaver

This week's story features spinning, weaving, a lot of bragging, and some gods in disguise.

Please pay close attention.

This is the story of Arachne the Weaver.

And it is a story about a contest between a mortal and a god.

It is a story about talent, pride, and respect.

But it is also a story about

fabric.

Most of the clothes we wear today come from a store, or if you're me, your older brother.

But most of us never see how these clothes are made.

In ancient Greece, the fabrics for clothes and blankets and rugs were all made the same way, by weaving with a loom.

A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestries.

The user stretches out a set of threads on the rack of the loom and then weaves another set of threads over and under and back and forth.

To really understand the story of arachne, you need to get this.

Take a look at what you're wearing.

If it's the right kind of material and you look really closely, you may be able to see the tiny threads that are stitched together to make the cloth.

Nowadays, that's all done by machine.

But thousands of years ago, these threads were woven woven together by hand on a loom.

And the people who did this important work were mostly women and known as weavers.

As part of the Industrial Revolution, weaving switched from hand to machine work.

John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733 and allowed the weaving of wider fabric made faster.

The first factories for weaving were built in 1785.

Arachne was a weaver and she was good.

In fact, she was famous for it.

Throughout the country, far and wide, people knew of Arachne's skill at the loom.

In fact, she was so good that people would come and actually just sit and watch her weave together the most beautiful fabrics.

And Arachne loved doing it.

A lot of the stories from Greek mythology are about heroes who were descended from gods.

They were skilled and gifted because they were part Olympian.

But this wasn't the case for Arachne.

She was just a regular mortal who was exceptionally good at making stuff on a loom.

And how did she get so good?

Practice.

She did it all the time.

And she did it all the time because she loved doing it.

It was fun to her.

The more she would weave, the better she would get.

And since she wove all the time, she got really good.

In fact, she became the best.

Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over or engaging in in an activity again and again for the purpose of improving or mastering it, as in the phrase, practice makes perfect.

If one enjoys the activity being rehearsed, it can be quite pleasing.

Arachne was all about the weaving.

Day in and day out, she would make the most beautiful tapestries and blankets and clothes.

In all the world, there was no weave so tight, no embroidery so detailed, no colors so bright.

Everything she wove was breathtaking.

She became so popular that crowds would gather to watch her weave.

Even nymphs and dryads would leave the woods and fields to come and watch her work.

One day, one of them said to her, Miss, your skills are so great, the goddess Athena must have taught you how to weave.

It was meant as a compliment, but Arachne didn't see it that way.

She didn't want anyone else taking credit for her skill, not even the gray-eyed Athena, the goddess who protected all crafting and household arts.

It's like if somebody said to you, wow, you're so lucky you got a good grade.

Was it luck?

Or did you work really hard for your grade?

I did not learn from Athena, Arachne said in response.

My talent is my own.

I am the greatest weaver by my own hand and no one else's.

At that, an old woman in the crowd spoke up.

But surely your skill is allowed by the grace of the gods, my child.

You are only a mortal.

Arachne replied, Athena does not allow me to be good.

I am good.

I may even be better than the goddess herself.

At this, the woman began to transform.

The old crone was suddenly gone and in her place was a tall, elegant, and powerful-looking woman wearing a breastplate made of leather with gray eyes, dark hair and a golden helmet.

The old woman's walking cane was now a spear, and her tattered cloak had changed into a shining white dress.

It was the goddess Athena herself.

Athena is known as the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, but she was also a very important patron of many other things.

She is goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, and the arts, crafts, and skills.

What all these things have in common is creativity.

The Greeks saw Athena as the goddess who could turn on your creativity so you saw a way to move forward.

In battle, in creative projects, and more, she also had a thing for owls.

I am Athena, goddess of craft and wisdom, she said.

Your talent is great, Arachne.

But are you sure you mean to say that you can weave as well as a god?

Arachne paled at the sight of the goddess before her.

The crowd began to shrink back, and a great hush fell upon them.

Arachne gulped, took a deep breath, and then held her head high defiantly.

Yes, she said, I believe I can weave as well as you or any god.

The crowd gasped in shock.

Who would dare challenge a god?

This was a big no-no for the ancient Greeks.

There was certain to be punishment, but Athena seemed to enjoy Arachne's response.

Very well, she said.

We will have a contest here tomorrow, you weaving on your loom and me on mine.

All are welcome to watch, but only Zeus himself will judge whose work is best.

The winner will have the glory,

but the loser must promise never to touch a spindle or loom or a single thread again.

Agreed?

Never weave again?

Ever?

I mean, this was what Arachne loved the most in the world.

Was she so sure of herself that she would risk losing it forever?

Agreed, Arachdi replied.

Apparently, she was.

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When the time came for the contest, a great crowd had gathered to witness the event.

The mighty Zeus and the other gods of Olympus seated themselves among the clouds to watch the two weavers work, and what work they did.

Their hands flew back and forth across the looms, over and under and around, weaving the different color threads into the fabric until eventually shapes and images and pictures began to form.

Athena was angry at Arachne for being so prideful, but she was also impressed with the mortals' courage and determination.

She just wanted Arachne to learn a lesson in humility, so she spun her threads into a beautiful tapestry that seemed more like a painting.

And this painting depicted depicted scenes of Athena's triumphs and some of the gods' victories over the mortals who challenged them.

The tapestry glowed like a piece of the sun and was as colorful as the rainbow.

A tapestry is a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored threads.

A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon caused by the dispersion of light in water droplets.

This results in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky, taking the form of a multicolored circular arc.

Rainbows that show up at night are called moonbows.

But Arachne didn't get the hint.

Or maybe she did and decided to ignore it.

But either way, she made her loom sing a very different song.

This is not meant literally.

Looms don't sing.

They don't do anything.

They are inanimate objects that people use to weave.

Arachne's tapestry told the story of the different ways the gods had mistreated mortals over the years.

It was a rich and complex collage of scenes, so many examples of how humans were often punished by the gods without reason.

And Arachne even went so far as to mock the gods, depicting Zeus and Apollo as silly animals.

And yet, this tapestry was also glorious.

There had never been anything like it woven before.

It was sad and breathtaking, but also disrespectful toward the gods.

And in the general opinion of the crowd, it was way better than Athena's tapestry.

Such beauty, such amazing craftsmanship, truly a sight to behold.

But remember, the crowd did not get to choose the winner.

Zeus did.

And this contest had yielded such spectacular results that he decided to come down from Olympus to see each weaving up close.

Zeus watched over Athena as she wove with great pride.

She was skilled and her quick fingers were creating a masterpiece.

It seemed to glow and shine as if it was lit from within.

But then he went to see what Arachne was up to, and everything changed.

At first, his jaw dropped.

His eyes went wide as he tried to take in the amazing design before him.

He had never seen anything so stunning.

Arachne smiled to herself as she wove.

This is.

this is

it was clear the king of the gods was overwhelmed.

He was almost at a loss for words.

This is so beautiful, it belongs in Olympus.

Such detail.

These pictures are.

And then he looked closely at one of the scenes where a donkey wearing a crown was hurling a thunderbolt at an unsuspecting human, and another where a pig descended from a cloud to steal a herd of cattle.

And Zeus's mood began to change.

He fixed his eyes on Arachne, but she wisely chose not to meet his gaze, instead keeping her head down to continue working even though she knew she was in danger.

The winner is Athena, the mighty Zeus decreed to the crowd.

And then turning back to Arachne, he said, and by rule, you shall never touch spindle or loom again.

This, he said, pointing accusingly at Arachne's weaving, will be your last creation.

And with that, Zeus vanished back to Olympus in a burst of thunder and lightning so strong that it scorched the ground and destroyed Arachne's beautiful tapestry, leaving it in flames.

Sadly and quietly, the crowd began to file away, leaving only Athena, Arachne, and a pile of ashes.

Forgive me, Athena, Arachne said through her tears.

I was too proud, and I was foolish.

Must I really never weave again?

I would forgive your debt if I could, Athena Athena replied.

But a bargain with the gods cannot be undone, even by me.

You promised never to touch spindle or loom again,

and so you must not.

Arachne was devastated.

If she couldn't weave, she didn't know what she would do with herself.

But, said Athena, there is a way for you to weave, and still hold to your bargain.

And with that she touched Arachne on the forehead with the spindle of her loom.

A bright light filled the air, and much like the old woman the day before, Arachne began to change.

But this time, she was changing into something much smaller.

Metamorphosis is a word that refers to the change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, using natural or supernatural means.

In Arachne's place was a nimble, graceful spider standing where Arachne once stood.

She immediately darted away into the tall grass and began to merrily weave a web.

Since it is your joy to weave, said Athena, you and your children and your children's children shall weave forevermore.

It only takes about one hour for the average spider to construct the elaborate web of silk thread called an orb web.

The scientific class for spiders is arachnid, which comes from the name arachne.

And to this day, we see the descendants of arachne all around us.

Spiders weave their beautiful webs each day.

They live in them, they lay eggs in them, and they use them to catch their prey.

But a spider web isn't built to last forever.

So all of the great, great, great, great granddaughters of Arachne are always joyfully weaving new webs.

That's it for season one of National Geographic Kids Greaking Out.

We hope you and your family enjoy.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written and hosted by Kenny Curtis, with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi, audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam.

Jennifer Emmett is EVP of Kids Content at National Geographic, and Kate Hale edits Zeus the Mighty.

Diane Klein is our fact checker, and Perry Gripp composed our themes.

Emily Everhart is our production manager.