Dante Alighieri (Purgatorio, XXII, 43-45):
O folle Aragne, sì vedea io te
Già mezza ragna, trista in su li stracci
De l'opera che mal per te si f …
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Dante Alighieri (Purgatorio, XXII, 43-45):
O folle Aragne, sì vedea io te
Già mezza ragna, trista in su li stracci
De l'opera che mal per te si fé.
O mad Arachne, so I thee beheld
Already half spider, sad upon the shreds
De badly for the work that you flashed.
Reading these lines I saw the reference to the version of the myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses, IV, 23 which explains how the descendants of Arachne are the spiders. For this aracnida is the scientific name of the class of spiders.
The myth of Arachne
Arachne, the daughter of the dyer Idmon was a girl who lived in Lydia, was well known for his skill as a weaver and embroiderer. Arachne was very proud of his skill so that one day she said that Athena would not have been able to compete with her and challenged in a public tender. Athena, heard the news, he was overwhelmed by anger and introduced himself to Arachne since the form of an old woman telling her to pick up the challenge and settle for being the best weaver among mortals. Arachne told him that if the goddess did not accept the challenge was because he had no courage, Then Athena turned and accepted the challenge. Athena and Arachne began to weave their webs and weaving scenes that lscelto. In the painting of Athena were the great historic achievements of the goddess; Arachne however, some depicting the loves of the gods, their faults and their deceptions. When the paintings were compared Athena had to admit that Arachne's work was better: the characters that were represented seemed true. Athena, not tolerating the apparent defeat, he grabbed the canvas of the rival destroyed and struck his rival until it bled. « Less
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Dana
Fantastic implementation of Arachne.
A great job!