Arachne The Weaver Answer Key

DLTK'due south Countries and Cultures - Greek Mythology
The Story of Arachne, the Weaver

written by James Baldwin, adapted and illustrated by -- based on Greek mythology

arachne In that location was a immature girl in Greece whose name was Arachne. Her confront was pale only fair, and her pilus was long and dark. All that she cared to practise from morn till noon was to sit in the sun and spin; and all that she cared to practise from noon till night was to sit in the shade and weave.

And oh, how fine and fair were the things which she wove on her loom! Flax, wool, silk—she worked with them all; and when they came from her hands, the material which she had made of them was and so thin and soft and bright that people came from all parts of the world to run across it. And they said that cloth so rare could not be made of flax, or wool, or silk, but that the warp was of rays of sunlight and the woof was of threads of gilded.

Then as, twenty-four hour period past day, the girl sat in the sun and spun, or sat in the shade and wove, she said: "In all the earth there is no yarn so fine as mine, and in all the earth in that location is no cloth so soft and smooth, nor silk so vivid and rare."

One afternoon as she sabbatum in the shade weaving and talking with passers by, some i asked of her, "Who taught you to spin and weave so well?"

"No one taught me," Arachne replied. "I learned how to do it as I saturday in the dominicus and the shade; but no one showed me."

"Simply information technology may be that Athena, godess of wisdom, taught you, and y'all did not know it."

Athena "Athena? Bah!" said Arachne. "How could she teach me? Can she spin such skeins of yarn as these? Can she weave goods like mine? I should like to run into her try. I can probable teach her a thing or two."

She looked up and saw in the doorway a tall woman wrapped in a long cloak. Her face was fair to see, simply stern, oh, then stern! And her gray optics were so sharp and bright that Arachne could not meet her gaze.

"Arachne," said the woman, "I am Athena, the godess of craft and wisdom, and I have heard your boast. Are you certain yous still mean to say that you tin can spin and weave likewise as I?"

Arachne's cheeks grew pale, but she said: "Yes. I can weave every bit well as you."

"And then let me tell y'all what we will do," said Athena. "Three days from now we volition both weave; yous on your loom, and I on mine. We will ask all who wish to come and run across us; and groovy Zeus, who sits in the clouds, shall be the estimate. And if your work is best, then I will weave no more so long as the world shall last; but if my work is best, and so yous shall never use loom or spindle. Do you agree to this?"

"I agree," said Arachne.

"Very well," said Athena. And she was gone.

When the fourth dimension came for the contest in weaving, hundreds were there to see information technology, and great Zeus sabbatum among the clouds and looked on.

Arachne took her skeins of finest silk and began to weave. And she wove a web of marvelous beauty, and so thin and low-cal that it would bladder in the air, and yet and so potent that it could concur a lion in its meshes; and the threads of warp and woof were of many colors, so beautifully arranged and mingled one with some other that all who saw were filled with please.

"No wonder that the maiden boasted of her skill," said the people and Zeus himself nodded.

And so Athena began to weave. And she took of the sunbeams that golden the mountain superlative, and of the snowy fleece of the summer clouds, and of the blue ether of the summertime heaven, and of the bright light-green of the summer fields, and of the royal purple of the fall wood,—and what do you suppose she wove?

The spider web which she wove was full of enchanting pictures of flowers and gardens, and of castles and towers, and of mountain heights, and of men and beasts, and of giants and dwarfs, and of the mighty beings who dwell in the clouds with Zeus. And those who looked upon it were so filled with wonder and delight, that they forgot all about the cute web which Arachne had woven. And Arachne herself was ashamed and agape when she saw it; and she hid her confront in her hands and wept.

"Oh, how tin can I live," she cried, "at present that I must never again utilise loom or spindle?"

And she kept on weeping and saying, "How can I live?"

spider So, when Athena saw that the poor maiden would never have whatever joy unless she were immune to spin and weave, she took pity on her and said:

"I would free you from your bargain if I could, but that is a affair which no one can do. You must hold to your agreement never to bear on loom or spindle again. And yet, since you will never exist happy unless yous can spin and weave, I will give y'all a new grade then that y'all can carry on your piece of work with neither spindle nor loom."

Then she touched Arachne with the tip of the spear which she sometimes carried; and the maiden was changed at once into a nimble spider, which ran into a shady place in the grass and began merrily to spin and weave a beautiful spider web.

I have heard it said that all the spiders which have been in the world since then are the children of Arachne. Perhaps Arachne still lives and spins and weaves; and the very next spider that you see may be she herself.

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