According to Barbara Walker,
"classical writers misinterpreted old images of Athene with her spider-totem and web,
and constructed the legend of Arachne, a mortal maid whose skill in weaving outshone even
that of the Goddess. Therefore Athene turned her into a spider." 1
As another version of the story goes, Arachne, the daughter of a dyer, was an exquisite
weaver who challenged the Goddess Athene to a contest, "a presumptuous act, as Athene
was the very spirit of the craft itself."2 In her
weaving Arachne depicted the entire Greek pantheon in sexual poses and embarrassed the
Goddess who, in her fury, ripped up Arachne's clothes in anger. Arachne was so shamed, she
hung herself and her spirit scurried away from her body in the form of the first spider.
Yet another version says Arachne, unable to stand the insult from Athena,
hanged herself. But Athena didn't let her die. Instead, she turned the
poor maiden into a spider and sentenced her and her descendents to a life
of eternal weaving, while being suspended from a thread.
Spiders engender some strong reactions amongst humans, despite the fact that they are
almost always harmless (and probably more worried about us plopping them on the head with
a rolled newspaper than entertaining thoughts of biting us or crawling on our bare
flesh!). In fact Freud went so far as to say that "the capacity of the sight of a
spider to precipitate a crisis of neurotic anxiety - whether in the nursery rhyme of Miss
Muffet or in the labyrinths of modern life - derives from an unconscious association of
the spider with the image of the phallic mother; to which perhaps, should be added the
observation that the web, the spiral web, may also contribute to the arachnid's force as a
fear-releasing sign." 3
Arachne the Spider was a totemic form of the Fate-spinner, otherwise known as Clotho or
Athene or the Virgin Moera. In Hindu myth, the spider represented Maya, the virgin aspect
of the Triple Goddess. The spider's web was likened to the Wheel of Fate and the spider to
the Goddess as spinner, sitting at the centre of her wheel. The female spiders habit of
devouring her mate led to her being identified with Kali, the Death Mother.
In Aztec myth spiders represented the souls of warrior women from the matriarchal,
pre-Aztec societies. At the end of the world, these women will descend from the sky,
hanging by silken threads, and devour all the men on Earth. There are other associations
too. Odin's horse Sleipnir (Slippery) had eight legs and was grey.
The folk tale of the Spider and the Fly suggested the once widespread belief that flies
are souls in search of a female entity to eat them and give them rebirth. 4
Notes
1. Barbara Walker, The Women's Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets,
Pandora, UK, 1995, p.54
2. Patricia Monaghan, The Book of Goddesses & Heroines, Llewellyn, USA, 1993, p.30
3. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, Penguin Arkana, 1991, pp.73-4.
4. Barbara Walker, op.cit. p.958.
Rituals for Arachne
* One evening, see if you can find a
spider either weaving or repairing her web. Be prepared to sit and wait.
Be patient. As the spider weaves, focus on the ever spiralling web and
think about the connections in your own life. Consider friends, family,
the people you work with, the people you love. Think about how they
sustain you and how these connections enhance your life.
* Do some weaving of your own. Take some green threads of different shades
and find a solitary place with a tree or shrub. Tie your thread to the
tree, then to another part. Keep weaving and consider your connection to
the web of life, to the green and wild places, to the gardens, forests,
beaches, rivers and deserts. Think about how life would be without them
and how they make your life better here and now. Do this for as long as
you like. Feel free to leave a written message in your web before you
leave and an offering for the tree.
Weave your way back to The Goddess Shrines main page
Last updated June 25, 2006
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