The Myth of Arachne
Why is absolute conformity so important in ancient Greece… and in our world?
The story of spiders and absolute allegiance to the divine. In ancient Greece, the myth of Arachne came about with a woman who was famous for her skillful embroidery. Her pieces were so incredible that people came to watch her work from all over Greece. She lived for the fame and was offended when compared to the great goddess Athena. Arachne asserted: “If Athena herself were to come down and compete with me, she could do no better than I.”
Athena heard Arachne’s claim and decided to check the mortal’s offensive remarks. She appeared before Arachne, and the two began to compete. Athena wove images of mortals who contested the gods and were fated horrible ends as a warning to all humans. Meanwhile, Arachne wove scenes of the cruelness and trickery of the gods. The pieces were equal in quality, yet when Athena saw what Arachne was weaving, she struck Arachne. Believing she was undeserving of such a beating, Arachne attempted to kill herself, yet Athena quickly transformed the woman and the rope into the first spider and its thread. Arachne’s spider web spinning still stands as a reminder to all people to not contest the gods.
The story of Arachne, boiled down, is about checking pride but mostly about obedience to the gods. Of course this story tells of the origin of the spider, but its main purpose is to show the ancient Greeks the importance of complete, unquestioned respect and compliance to their “superiors.” As a versed Greek mythology reader, I take issue with this notion. First of all, the Greek gods, although powerful creatures, are shown through their myths to be selfish and violent beings. They endlessly kill and abuse mortals at their will when their egos are touched.
But if they are gods, why do they share so many human emotions that drive them to be so greed filled and hateful? Why can’t the Greek people decide to change the source of their devotion without being turned to spiders?
Questioning the ideas we are taught to devote ourselves to is what led me along my religious journey. I began to question my Judaism– why I was practicing and if I truly believed in my own religious teachings. Over several years of existential confusion, I arrived at my belief in no higher being. Still, I am a practicing Jew. Religion, I learned, does not need to be so cut and dry as it was in the time of Arachne.
What Arachne’s story tells us is that we have limited free thought in this world. We are conditioned to a common belief, and if we try to transform it we will be outcasted. I might not be condemned to the same fateful ending for my atheism as Arachne was for her questioned devotion, yet her story shows that even if we meet adversity and consequences along the way, we should embrace breaking free from the shackles of societal norms to discover who we really are.