Retold in our own words from Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (Theoi Project translation), with Britannica · Published 30 October 2026
The weaver of Lydia
Literature In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Arachne is a young weaver famous across Lydia. Her father lives in Colophon and dyes wool purple. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
Literature Her work is so fine that nymphs come to watch her spin and weave. Anyone can see that Minerva, the goddess of weaving, must have taught her, but Arachne denies it and challenges the goddess to a contest. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
The old woman
Literature Minerva comes to her disguised as an old woman with grey hair and a stick, and warns her to ask the goddess’s pardon. Arachne refuses. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
The contest
Literature The goddess shows herself, and the contest begins. Minerva weaves the gods in their majesty, including her own contest with Neptune over the city of Athens. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
Literature Arachne weaves stories of gods tricking people in disguise, such as Europa carried off by a bull. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
Literature Ovid says the goddess could not find a single flaw in Arachne’s work; even Envy could not fault it. Angry at her skill, the goddess rips the tapestry apart. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
The spider
Literature In the end the goddess sprinkles her with the juices of Hecate’s herb, and Arachne shrinks into a spider who goes on spinning thread. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
History The scientific name for the class of animals that includes spiders, Arachnida, comes from her name. Britannica: Arachne ↗
About the story
History Britannica says Ovid’s Metamorphoses is the chief source of Arachne’s story. It gives two reasons for the goddess’s anger: the perfection of Arachne’s work, or, in another reading, its subject. Britannica: Arachne ↗
Ovid wrote in Latin, so his goddess is called Minerva. She is the same goddess the Greeks called Athena. (See our Myth or history? page for the other Roman names.)
Follow the thread
Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 (trans. Brookes More) · Theoi Project ↗
Retellings are in our own words. Every sentence above carries a label (History, Literature or Tradition) and a link to the source it was checked against, with the book and line or section numbers. Where ancient writers tell a myth differently, we name each one.
Source method & more reading ↗