Spider told by the Roman poet Ovid in his "Metamorphoses", Arachne was a Lydian girl who challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest. Arachne won, but Athena destroyed her tapestry out of jealousy, causing Arachne to hang herself. In an act of mercy, Athena brought Arachne back to life as the first spider. Stories about the trickster-spider Anansi are prominent in the folk traditions of the Asante people of Ghana. In some cultures, spiders have symbolized patience due to their hunting technique of setting webs and waiting for prey, as well as mischief and malice due to their venomous bites.
Lenormant Athena Lenormant Athena The Lenormant Athena is the name given to a small Greek statuette which was made in the first century AD. The Lenormant Athena was discovered in 1859 near the Pnyx hill in Athens and identified by François Lenormant a year later as a small copy of the Athena Parthenos of Phidias. The 41 cm high pentelic marble sculpture has thus come to be known by his name. The unfinished work is of great art historical significance, since it not only shows us what Phidias' statue looked like, but also the reliefs on her shield and the base on