Ancient History/Greece/Minoan Civilization. The location of the island of Crete within modern Greece. The Minoans were a Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the Greek Aegean island of Crete from around 3000 to 1100 BCE.
The book describes Arachne as '...the greatest weaver in the worldâher fate's the proof of it. She had the bad luck to defeat the goddess Athena in a weaving contest. Athena was a sore loser, and Arachne is now a spider, creating only for Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, by special arrangement.
One day she dared to challenge the Goddess to compete with her. Athena arrived in the guise of an old woman and asked Arachne to withdraw her impious challenge. Arachne refused. Athena reassumed her divine form and accepted the challenge. Arachne at once drew threads across her loom and with cunning hand guided the shuttle through the taut netting. As a subject, she had chosen to weave the loves of the Gods. When she had finished she submitted her work to Athena for examination. Furious with her arrogance, Athena changed Arachne into a spider and condemned her eternally to spin, and to draw from her own body the thread with which to weave her web. Although Athena's activities are chiefly concerned with useful work she is not averse to artistic creation.