"Athletic Maiden with a heart sublime,Elsewhere, I have pointed out how the androgynous warlike Athena was a friend to Greek heroes, but she wasn't so helpful to women. Deborah Lyons, in Chapter 3 of Gender and Immortality, details Athena's bias against her own sex, but even without reading Lyons' interesting essay, in the passage above, you can see Athena destroying the feminine Medusa and eschewing her own sexuality. In what follows, we will look at some of the ways Athena hurt or destroyed mythological women.
Slayer of the Gorgon, fugitive of the bridal bed,
Mother of Art in all your abundance, catalyst of progress!
You bring folly to the corrupt and a sense of purpose to the pure!
Indeed, you are male and female in one,
Patron of war and wisdom,
You are fluid of form, a dragon,
Infused with inspiration of the Gods!"
(www.globaltown.com/shawn/athena.html)
Arachne
The story of Arachne told in Book 6 of Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the most familiar stories about Athena. Its theme is a familiar one: Comparison of mortals with gods tends to land the mortals in serious trouble. When Agamemnon couldn't sail from Aulis, the seer Calchas deduced that the reason the winds wouldn't rise was because Agamemnon had offended Artemis with a boast about the superiority of his hunting skills. Artemis, the goddess of hunting, took herself and her skills very seriously. A sacrifice appeased the goddess. Aphrodite's specialty was beauty. The comparison of the beauty of the mortal Psyche with the goddess Aphrodite formed the background for the story of Cupid and Psyche familiar from the Metamorphoses (aka Golden Ass) of Apuleius. While ultimately there was a happy ending, to avert Aphrodite's wrath, Psyche's family abandoned their daughter to a lonely death. That sacrifice and the fulfillment of a series of impossible trials reconciled the goddess Aphrodite with the mortal Psyche.The comparison of Arachne with the ultimate artist and craftswoman, Athena, had more enduring consequences.
Arachne had bragged that she could spin and weave as well as the goddess. Athena heard about it and challenged Arachne to a contest to prove her skill. Arachne had not boasted vainly, but that only inflamed Athena more. As Arachne superbly wove a depiction of the gods' debaucheries, Athena decided to get revenge by making Arachne a permanent weaver. She turned her into a spider and from the name of the hapless mortal, we have the scientific name for spiders -- arachnids.
One at the loom so excellently skill'd, That to the Goddess she refus'd to yield, (Ovid, Metamorphoses VI)This the bright Goddess passionately mov'd,
With envy saw, yet inwardly approv'd.
The scene of heav'nly guilt with haste she tore,
Nor longer the affront with patience bore;
A boxen shuttle in her hand she took,
And more than once Arachne's forehead struck.
Ovid
