Arachne

     Athena is the goddess of wisdom.  She also taught spin and weave; and she thought that no one weave better then her.  When she heard that a mortal named Arachne thought her weaving was a lot better than Athena’s, Athena got mad.  Athena disguised as an old woman and went to earth.  She visited Arachne at her house in the woods.  Arachne was weaving a pattern using rainbow colored threads. 

     “Arachne, you should not try to compete with Athena.  You should ask for her pardon for what you said.”  Athena said.

     Arachne replied, “Everybody knows that I am the best weaver in the world.  Athena can come and have a weaving contest with me if she doesn’t believe me.”  Athena decided there and then to show herself, and said, “I accept your challenge.”  Arachne was surprised but was so certain of her talents and did not surrender.

     They set up their looms and went to work, weaving so fast and good that their shuttles seemed to fly in all directions.  Athena wove scenes of gods who were mad at with humans who dared to challenge them.  Arachne wove scenes of the gods’ weaknesses. 

     Athena was mad when she saw these scenes because they showed the bad sides of gods; and also Arachne’s woven web was just as good as hers.

     Athena was so mad, she took her shuttle and tore Arachne’s web to shreds.  Then she touched her forehead to make her feel guilty and ashamed.  Arachne felt so guilty and ashamed that she hung herself with a noose she made from her strongest threads.  When Athena saw her hanging there, she felt a little sorry for her so she sprinkled her with magic liquid and said, “You are not going to die, Arachne.  But you will become a spider, and hanging by a thread and weaving your web forever.  And she shrank into a tiny spider.  Her nose and ears fell off and her finger turned to legs.  What was left of her became her body, out of which she spins and spins the thread for her web.