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Arachne was used to being wondered at, and she was immensely proud of the skill
that had brought so many to look on her. Praise was all she lived for, and it
displeased her greatly that people should think anyone, even a goddess, could teach
her anything. Therefore when she heard them murmur, she would stop her work and
turn round indignantly to say, "With my own ten fingers I gained this skill, and by
hard practice from early morning till night. I never had time to stand looking as
you people do while another maiden worked. Nor if I had, would I give Athena credit
because the girl was more skillful than I. As for Athena's weaving, how could there
be finer cloth or more beautiful embroidery than mine? If Athena herself were to
come down and compete with me, she could do no better than I."
One day when Arachne turned round with such words, an old woman answered her, a
gray old woman, bent and very poor, who stood leaning on a staff and peering at
Arachne amid the crowd of onlookers. "Reckless girl," she said, "how dare you claim
to be equal to the immortal gods themselves? I am an old woman and have seen much.
Take my advice and ask pardon of Athena for your words. Rest content with your fame
of being the best spinner and weaver that mortal eyes have ever beheld."
[5] "Stupid old woman," said Arachne indignantly, "who gave you a right to speak in
this way to me? It is easy to see that you were never good for anything in your
day, or you would not come here in poverty and rags to gaze at my skill. If Athena
resents my words, let her answer them herself. I have challenged her to a contest,
but she, of course, will not come. It is easy for the gods to avoid matching their
skill with that of men."
At these words the old woman threw down her staff and stood erect. The wondering
onlookers saw her grow tall and fair and stand clad in long robes of dazzling
white. They were terribly afraid as they realized that they stood in the presence
of Athena. Arachne herself flushed red for a moment, for she had never really
believed that the goddess would hear her. Before the group that was gathered there
she would not give in; so pressing her pale lips together in obstinacy and pride,
she led the goddess to one of the great looms and set herself before the other.
Without a word both began to thread the long woolen strands that hang from the
rollers, and between which the shuttle moves back and forth. Many skeins lay heaped
beside them to use, bleached white, and gold, and scarlet, and other shades, varied
as the rainbow. Arachne had never thought of giving credit for her success to her
father's skill in dyeing, though in actual truth the colors were as remarkable as
the cloth itself.
Soon there was no sound in the room but the breathing of the onlookers, the
whirring of the shuttles, and the creaking of the wooden frames as each pressed the
thread up into place or tightened the pegs by which the whole was held straight.
The excited crowd in the doorway began to see that the skill of both in truth was
very nearly equal, but that, however the cloth might turn out, the goddess was the
quicker of the two. A pattern of many pictures was growing on her loom. There was a
border of twined branches of the olive, Athena's favorite tree, while in the
middle, figures began to appear. As they looked at the glowing colors, the
spectators realized that Athena was weaving into her pattern a last warning to
Arachne. The central figure was the goddess herself competing with Poseidon for
possession of the city of Athens; but in the four corners were mortals who had
tried to strive 10 gods and pictures of the awful fate that had overtaken them. The
goddess ended a little before Arachne and stood back from her marvelous work to see
what the maiden was doing.
with
7. Indignant (adjective): feeling or showing anger or annoyance
8. Obstinacy (noun): stubbornness
9. the Greek god of the sea 10. to struggle in opposition
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