Myths and Legends

Arachne

So...in Greek mythology there are a fair share of idiots that...well are stupid. For different reasons mind. Some are just clueless, some are accidentally stupid ( i.e a mistake on their part)...Then there are those who try the gods. You heard the story of how Theseus and his idiotic brother Pirithous trying to kidnap Persephone. There are many stories where the flaw of hubris is feature. And hubris basically thinking you're better than the gods or you think you're on their level. This is the story of Arachne....Percy Jackson fans please keep it in your pants.Plus this is an origin story for spiders...I'll cover more stories involving spiders if you guys want.Now onto the story.

Now Arachne is this beautiful daughter of a shepherd. She was a skilled weaver and was humble, like many, but the fame of her creations went to her head. Now normally whenever someone asks how you got so good at a skill, some say practice or it was a gift from God or whatever but not Arachne. Now someone asked how she got so good at weaving and said she was blessed by the gods. Arachne was like, "Oh, hell no. This is all me.Fuck the gods." Okay maybe not those words exactly, but you get the point. Now word got to Athena( I believe she invented weaving looms or whatever.) and she decided to let her correct herself by going down as "Grandma A" and was like" I bet  the gods blessed you with such a gift and talent. You should humble yourself. Word says that a nymph told Athena herself what you said."

And Arachne was like," I can beat Athena with my eyes closed. If she challenged me,I'd win. Simple as that." 

That's when Grandma was "Okay...Challenge accepted." revealing herself to be Athena. Now there are many versions on who was the judge. It was either the locals, Zeus or a minor goddess named Envy. Now Athena's tapestry was of the gods and all their glory and accomplishments. But Arachne's...Drunk Dionysus, shepherd Apollo, Zeus and his fuckboi tendencies and so on. Goddammit..you'd think she heard what happened to those who pissed off the gods like this. 

Now in just about all of the versions, it ended in a tie.( probably to not insult anyone.) But comes after is all over the place. Now in one version Athena admits Arachne is on the same level as her, but what she decided to weave was insulting to the gods, so she made her realize, which lead to Arachne committing suicide. Athena taking pity on the girl and turned her into a spider so she can live once more without pissy off Hades. Another version( where Zeus is the Judge) ordered Athena to destroy the tapestry and beat Arachne. She couldn't bring herself to beat Arachne( she did destroy the tapestry), but turned her into a spider so she could avoid Zeus' wrath ( good call).

Now there is a version, with Zeus as the judge, that had the loser vow to never weave again. Now both Athena and Arachne was amazing but again, Arachne decide to weave the gods looking like idiots, not the best idea. Zeus saw that both were beautiful, but decided Athena was the winner , not because she's his daughter but because Arachne's hubris got in the way. So in order to get around the vow, Athena changed her into a spider so she can continue to weave.
Now this story is a reminder of no matter how talented you are, you have to humble yourself. Plus there are other versions  of this story, but they might require a higher rating for the book than the one that has already been set....