Arachne
One beautiful morning in Greece, a proud young girl named Arachne spun and wove a fine silk bedcover. She boasted that her weaving was the best, but then, a tall, frightening woman appeared before her. She declared, “ I am the goddess Athena and I have heard your boasting. I challenge you to a design contest; if you win I will never weave again, but if I win you will never touch a loom or a spindle again!”
When the day of the contest arrived, Arachne set her loom under a tree, but Athena assembled her handiwork in the sky. Arachne spun from yarn, and fashioned an exquisite web, but Athena wove the sun beams, clouds, fields, and woods. Arachne, who realized that Athena’s creation far surpassed her own, cried out; “ I have lost to the goddess of crafts, and her works forever surpass mine!”
Athena felt pity on the distressed girl and transformed her into a spider. “Now,” whispered Athena, “you will spin a web forever.” And so she did.