Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: This essay presents an alternative reading of the transformation of Arachne, with implications for the interpretation of the episode as a whole. On the basis of what Minerva herself says before sprinkling Arachne with the transformative elixir, and of the elixir’s effects as Ovid describes them, I argue that the spider’s weaving can be read not as the culmination of Arachne’s punishment but as an act of defiant self-assertion on her part; that the ‘poetic justice’ Minerva had in mind centered not on Arachne’s weaving but on the challenge Arachne presents via her transgression of gender norms; and that this challenge is reformulated but not abandoned by Arachne the spider.
Source: Dictynna
Author: Ellen Oliensis
Institutions: Université de Lille, University of California, Berkeley
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4389739765