The myths of greek mythology give wonder and imagination to those of old and new, past and present. There is the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Narcissus, and Pandora’s box. There are a couple of myths that include hubris in a large way, whether it is a god lost in pride and arrogance, or a mortal who gets blinded by the shawl of boastfulness and one's own gratification. The most remembered one most likely is the story of Arachne. Who challenged the god Athena, saying that she was even more talented than the god of wisdom and strategy; or is that really the true story. Arachne’s tale is told in three different versions, all similar but yet different; who is right and who is wrong and how does this myth relate to the real world?

There are three versions to this myth; the first version to this myth is where the goddess Athena challenges Arachne out of anger and jealousy. To learn more about Arachne in this version, she lived in Greece and she was known as a very skilled weaver and weaved beautiful tapestries; she was also a shepherd's daughter. Arachne was blinded hubris and boasted about her skill and claimed to be better than Athena. Athena overheard and became infuriated and so she appeared and contested her. The two set up their looms back to back in the same room and weaved until it was too dark to see; since there was no electricity back then! Now for the first version there are different opinions of what the two weaved. “Athena weaved four scenes in which the gods punished those humans that considered themselves equal to gods and committed hubris; Arachne, on the other hand, weaved scenes in which the gods abused humans.”  In that rendition of what they had woven Athena weaved what would happen to Arachne if she didn’t stop with her prideful actions, almost a warning perhaps. Arachne weaved the opposite of Athena and weaved that gods were rude to humans and that the gods abused them, not taking into consideration that it was rude in itself. The other form of what they weaved tells of opinion and not so smart decisions. “Athena had wove a beautiful cloth showing the gods and goddesses sitting together on Mt. Olympus and doing good deeds for people. But Arachne thought she was so smart, she wove a cloth making fun of the gods and goddesses, showing them getting drunk and falling down and making a mess of things.” Both of the tellings of what they woven shows disrespectful actions that inevitably led to Athena to turn her into a spider with either one of Hecate’s potions and or with her powers of being a goddess; condemning her to weave for eternity out of hatred.

The second rendition to this drama filled myth shows more of Arachne’s hubris; and even though it is the same myth, it is stilled filled with differences. In this telling, that is written by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), Arachne boasts more about how she is a great weaver and more so of one than Athena. Athena, again, overhears of this and disguises herself as an old woman. Athena, as the old woman, tells Arachne that she should acknowledge thee goddess’ superiority; Arachne continues to yell into the heavens that she challenged Athena to see who is the better weaver. “‘Let her come!’ she says. And Athena (the gods do love their dramatic revelations) throws off her disguise declaring ‘She is here!’”  At this moment Arachne became excited, finally having the chance to prove she is the better weaver than the goddess. In Ovid’s adaptation he speaks every detail of the contests, to vividly put the picture into your mind of what the two were weaving, for he not only as a myth about beauty but also debating whether humans have the right to challenge gods. What they have woven in their tapestries is much clearer to what it actually was. Athena’s cloth is a depiction of the gods at their full glory, looking at the scene of Athena’s triumph over Poseidon in the contest for Athens. In the four corners, she wove of four admonitory scenes of when humans compared themselves to gods, and the punishments that came with it. Arachne’s cloth shows something else entirely; mainly the episodes of Zeus and his pursuit of many women. Athena recognises that Arachne’s skill, but also wants to teach her a lesson. “Touching Arachne’s forehead, the women was filled with shame and hung herself. Athena brought her back to life and turned her into a spider, in order to let her weave all of time.” (greekmyth...) This form of the myth has a bit more pleasant reason behind as to why Athena turned her into a spider, to continue her art even throughout her punishment.

In the final variant, all is relatively the same. Arachne boasts of her art and gift, boosting her already major ego, again, challenging the goddess of wisdom. Athena as well is all the same in this taale, she goes down to participate in the contest to see who is crowned the better weaver. Almost everything is the same besides, the judge(s). In the last two the townspeople of Arachne’s town judged between the two skilled weavers; this time, Zeus himself came down from his throne on Mt.Olympus to declare a winner. “ In the final version of the myth, Zeus was the judge in the contest between Arachne and Athena, and whoever lost would not be allowed to touch a spindle or the loom again.”  Nothing is said of what the two weaved this time, but most likely the same theme of opposites. By the end of the contest Zeus crowns Athena the winner, being the first time the goddess won instead of the human weaver. Athena notices how devastated Arachne was, as well as her skill and her passion for the art. Athena ultimately decides out of pity to transform her into a spider so she can continue to share her art with the world.

Arachne’s myth has touched the minds of those who read or hear it. It begins to make them think about the time if they have gotten too egoistic and it led to their own downfall. The outcome may not be as bad as turning into a spider; afterall she still got to continue her passion, but maybe not in the most ideal way. But it maybe as bad as losing someone you were once close to; or being ostracized to the point of losing the confidence you once had. Many people across the world get tied into them boosting themselves up that they forget to boost the ones around them too. In today’s political society, people get so caught up with what their opinion is, that they’re filling themselves with hatred and that they swallow themselves with having to prove their thoughts; just like Arachne when she got so eager to prove she was the better weaver, and how Athena got angry when Arachne did so. On the topic of politics, even in the past there were examples of hubris as well. The most notable would be the tyranny of Adolf Hitler; where his greed for power got to his head to quickly and it ultimately resulted in himself ending his reign when he wasn’t winning anymore, which also relates to the second interpretation of Arachne’s myth.

So after hearing the different adaptations of the myth of Arachne and Athena and to see which was the right version to tell, you can say that you can tell anyone of them to those around you today. The reason as to why is because it all gets the message across. That message is that if you go down the path of hubris, by definition, will lead to your ending to an unwilling punishment caused by only yourself. Now, not only did you learn from Arachne, but you also learned from Athena too. You can take from her in this myth that you can also think about your actions before you act upon them; also to accept that some may-be “better” than you at something and to not act upon it out of jealousy and anger. Today, Arachne’s story teaches people about the definition of hubris and how to spot in it in the real world that you see before your eyes. If you find you may encounter excessive pride in your life and you feel the need to act upon it, share this myth with that person; or you can turn them into a spider, that works too.