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Several leading Roman poets delighted in portraying imaginary
works of art. For their themes they almost always chose particular
events. Digressing from the tale of Peleus and Thetis, Catullus intro-
duced a famous account of Theseus and Ariadne which, he said, was
used to decorate the coverlet of the nuptial couch. Vergil pictured
brilliantly a cloak adorned with the story of Ganymede, which Aeneas
presented to the victor of the boat race. He described with sympathy
the sculptured doors at Cumae, which recounted the tale of Daedalus.
And, when Vulcan made the shield of Aeneas, Vergil pictured its
elaborate sculpture portraying the greatness of the hero's Roman
descendants. Ovid too, was to follow the fashion and to describe in
detail a bowl carved with the story of Orion's daughters (Bk. 13).
All these descriptions served chiefly as interesting digression from
the tale itself. But Vergil gave such description a further advantage.
He made it contribute something of value to the story. When he
portrayed the murals depicting events at Troy, they not only afforded
interest in themselves; they informed Aeneas that Dido was acquainted
with some of his past adventures and was friendly to the Trojans.
Ovid too, learned how to make description of imaginary works of art
contribute directly to his narrative. Following Vergil's examples, he
not only made his account of the designs of Arachne and Athena elab-
orate and brilliant but he chose themes in harmony with their char-
acters, and he caused the impiety of Arachne's work to anger the
goddess and hasten the catastrophe.
As Ovid imagined the contest between Athena and Arachne, it was
to be similar in many respects to the contest between the Muse and
the Pierid. In both stories the nature of Ovid's work required him to
introduce mythological tales ending in metamorphoses. In both stories
a goddess contested with a mortal woman; she had the advantage of a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
more edifying theme; and she obtained the victory. Although both
these subjects might be interesting, there was danger of monotony.
Ovid was careful to relieve the effect of similar material by
variety of treatment. In the first contest he had allowed the Muse
the advantage of a more interesting theme. He did not allow such an
advantage to Athena. This gave him variety in the nature of the
contests. But Ovid did not stop here. In one story he had recorded
first the work of the mortal Pierid, in the other he recorded first the
work of the goddess Athena. This gave him also variety of order.
He had introduced a contrast between the work of the Pierid and that
of the Muse. Making the song of the Pierid brief and dry, he fol-
lowed it with an elaborate, beautiful song of the Muse. He contrasted
in a still different way the work of Arachne and that of Athena. Be-
ginning with an effective account of Athena's design, he followed it
with a far richer account of the design of Arachne. In his hands the
work of each one of the four contestants became obviously different
from that of the other three. In the first tale poor work of the Pierid
became a foil to beautiful work of the Muse. In the second tale simple,
dignified work of Athena stood out beside work of Arachne which was
rich in interest. Ovid added to the value of his subjects a treatment
of extraordinary variety. And in both contests he secured the further
advantage of presenting the material in order of increasing interest.
By giving an elaborate description of the woven pictures, Ovid
gained the advantage of sumptuous effect. He increased this effect by
an unusual treatment of the theme. Ordinarily it was Ovid's practice
to narrate a myth at some length. Here he often gave it only a single
brilliant phrase and then passed on to a similar brilliant, allusive
treatment of the next myth. He produced the impression of strange,
ever varying, inexhaustible wealth.
Such a result was of great benefit. But that was not all. Usually
Ovid would recount his events approximately in their chronological
order. This method brought two disadvantages: certain desirable tales
had no relation to any of the rest, and certain other desirable tales
appeared at such long intervals in the great mythic cycles of Athens,
Argos, and Thebes (cf. Bk. 3) that, to associate them in order of
historical time, Ovid would have to deal with intervening material
which for his purpose was unsuitable. Ovid removed both difficulties
by his allusive description of the woven designs. This allowed him to
select at will either interesting isolated myths or attractive events
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? PALLAS AND ARACHNE
which had occurred previously in the three great mythic cycles. He
might use any appropriate material which had occurred before the
time of the contest between Athena and Arachne. But Ovid found the
advantage of this arrangement so great that he went still further.
He mentioned a few events which must have happened long after the
time of the contest. He lessened the evil by his unusual method, for
in a series of rapid, brilliant allusions, an error of date was unlikely
to draw attention. And this permitted Ovid to use desirable events
even in the mythical history of Troy. Ovid obtained not only a sumptu-
ous effect in the story of Arachne but also a great improvement of his
poem as a whole.
Athena, Ovid tells us, planned a large central picture and four
lesser pictures in the four corners. For the central picture she chose
the victory which made her patron deity of Athens. The myth had
been popular with Greek authors and artists. Herodotus told it to the
following effect. Not long after the founding of the city, Neptune and
Athena appeared on the Acropolis and competed for the honor of be-
coming the favorite deity. Each gave a demonstration of supernatural
power. Neptune, smiting the rock with his trident, caused a spring of
salt water to bubble up and form a pool, referred to as "a sea. "
Athena, striking the ground with the point of her spear, produced an
olive tree. Athena obtained the victory. But both deities were honored
in the temple of Erechtheus, built on the historic spot.
The idea of striking a rock and causing a spring of water was
common in popular lore. According to a favorite Arcadian myth,
Neptune had smitten another rock with his trident to form the three
springs of Lerna. Apollonius attributed a similar miracle to Hercules.
And Ovid had recorded a kindred story of Pegasus and the fount of
Hippocrene (Bk. 5). But among all such tales the most famous is
that of the Hebrew Moses and the flinty rock of Meribah.
Phidias in a great sculptured pediment of the Parthenon had
treated the contest of Neptune and Athena. In all essential particulars
he agreed with Herodotus, but he added the idea that Athena appeared
as a warrior maid. The contest was pictured also on many painted
vases and on coins. In general these representations agreed with
Herodotus and Phidias. But sometimes they added a goddess personi-
fying Victory, and one vase painting showed her offering a crown to
the successful Athena.
Herodotus and the Greek artists had not shown how the contest
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
was decided. Callimachus declared that Jupiter appointed as judges
twelve gods. Callimachus gave also a different version of the contest.
Athena, he said, did not create the olive tree in public view. She
planted it in the temple of Pandrosos and made King Cecrops her
witness. This account was repeated by the Manual. Varro mentioned
as judges of the contest the people of Athens.
Ovid followed in part the version of Phidias and the Greek vase
painters. He spoke of the contest as taking place in public view, add-
ing mistakenly that it occurred on the Hill of Mars, and he showed
Athena as a warrior maid obtaining recognition from the goddess
Victory. But he agreed with Callimachus and the Manual that Jupiter
appointed as judges the twelve gods. While referring to them, he
may well have remembered Euphranor's famous painting of the twelve
gods, which adorned the Athenian colonnade of Jupiter.
Of Athena's lesser designs, Ovid tells us, all four showed mortals
transformed because of their impiety to the gods. In at least three
rases they were guilty of impiety to Juno.
First came Haemus and Rhodope. They were a Thracian brother
and sister who presumptuously took the names of Jupiter and Juno.
As punishment, they were turned into bleak mountains covered with
perpetual snow. Ovid merely alluded to their fate, because already he
bad described the similar transformation of Atlas (Bk. 4).
Next came a tale of the Pygmies, a theme of special interest to
the Greeks and Romans. In prehistoric times dwarf tribes of black
people seem to have inhabited a great area of equatorial Africa. They
were a shy, inoffensive race, now distinguished as the Negrillos, aver-
rging perhaps four feet six inches in height. The Egyptians, through
trade with the tribes of the Upper Nile, learned something of these
small black people and represented them accurately in sculpture at
Sakkarah, which dates from about the year 2,500 B. C. Egyptian
voyagers encountered them also on the west coast of equatorial Africa.
And a stray party of Libyans met with them as far north as the lower
course of the Niger. In modern times the Negrillos have occupied a
much more restricted area near the headwaters of the Congo River
and near Lake Albert Nyanza.
To the Greek world also, there came news of the strange little
people. The Greeks called them Pygmies, meaning (literally) people
only thirteen and a half inches high. The poet of the Iliad mentioned
the Pygmies as living far south by the streams of Ocean. Others
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? PALLAS AND ARACHNE
thought of them more vaguely as inhabiting some unvisited region in
the south, or even far to the north. Greek painters portrayed them
rather accurately and showed them armed with lances. Herodotus
recorded the Egyptian traditions. And Aristotle tried to localize the
Pygmies in the marshes of Upper Egypt.
Other tribes of dwarf black people, the Negritos, inhabited many
islands south of Asia. During Alexander's expedition to India, his
followers learned something of these tribes, and the fact was mentioned
by the historian Ctesias. With the new discovery in mind, later Greeks
tended to identify the Pygmies with the Negritos and to localize them
vaguely in India, a belief which Ovid recorded in his Fasti.
Meanwhile Greek poets had introduced the strange, little known
people into mythology and had associated them with the annual migra-
tion of cranes. During the summer these birds reared their young
throughout the northern half of Europe. In the autumn they gathered
in flocks and flew southwards with loud, trumpeting cries to Africa or
to India. The Iliad declared them on their way to war with the distant
race of Pygmies. Greek poets and vase painters often repeated the idea.
Ovid mentioned it in his Fasti, and Juvenal described vividly what he
thought might be a typical battle.
To account for this peculiar antagonism, the Alexandrians in-
vented another myth. At one time, said Boeus, the queen of the Pygmies
was a certain Gerana. She claimed for herself the worship belonging
to Juno. As punishment she was transformed into a crane and made
hateful to her former subjects. When she tried to visit her son, they
resisted her and began the celebrated war. This account was repeated
by Ovid's friend, Aemilius Macer.
Athena filled her third corner with a design showing the fate of
the Trojan princess Antigone, a daughter of Laomedon (cf. Bk. 11).
Boeus and Macer had told the story as follows. Proud of her long,
beautiful hair, Antigone called herself superior to Juno. The goddess
turned it into snakes, but the gods alleviated her misery by transform-
ing her into a stork. Since the first change resembled that of Medusa
(Bk. 4), Ovid confined himself to the second.
In the fourth corner Athena pictured Cinyras mourning the loss
of his daughters. Guilty of some impiety, they had become the marble
steps of a temple. This tale we know only from Ovid. Athena enclosed
her entire design with a border of olive sprays.
Ovid then turned to the design of Arachne. He had imagined
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
that both the Pierid and Arachne chose myths discreditable to the
gods. But he made the disparagement different in each case. The
Pierid sang of Olympian cowardice, Arachne pictured Olympian sensu-
ality. Her design comprised many little pictures, each one portraying
an illicit love affair of some major god. Individually such themes were
apt to produce an unfortunate effect. By crowding many of them into
a single tale, Ovid heightened the evil and made it inescapable. In
planning his work he may not have foreseen this result. Afterwards
he showed no desire to amend it.
Arachne began with nine intrigues of Jupiter. First she por-
trayed the abduction of Europa. The story Ovid had told already
(Bk. 2). He now described vividly the white bull swimming through
the waves and Europa looking back frightened at the already distant
shore.
Then came a picture of Jupiter and the rather celebrated goddess
Asterie. According to the Theogony, she was daughter of Coeus and
Phoebe. She married Perses and became the mother of Hecate. In
the Hymn to Delos Callimachus told of her being courted afterwards
by Jupiter. To escape Jupiter, he said, she leaped from heaven into
the sea and became a floating island. The Manual added further cir-
cumstances. Before leaping, Asterie took the form of a quail, and
therefore the name of the island was originally Ortygia (Quail Island).
The name Asterie (Starry One) was given to the goddess because she
fell like a meteor from heaven. Boeus, repeating the story, declared
that Jupiter had pursued Asterie in the shape of an eagle. To this
incident Ovid referred, adding that at least temporarily tho eagle over-
took the fleeing quail.
In the third picture Arachne treated the myth of Jupiter and
Leda. According to the Iliad, Jupiter in his own shape courted Leda,
wife of the Spartan king, Tyndarus; and their offspring was Helen
of Troy.
At this time and ordinarily in later times Venus was thought to
have been either the daughter of Jupiter and Dione or the daughter
of Uranus without a mother. But soon after Homeric times the Greeks
learned from the Syrians a different account of her origin, which soon
altered the tale of Leda. Jupiter, according to this tale, courted
Nemesis. She took the form of a goose, and he became a gander. She
laid an egg, which dropped into the River Euphrates. Fishes rolled
the egg ashore; and doves, tending it, hatched the goddess Venus. This
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? PALLAS AND ARACHNE
tradition, like the earliest myth of Callisto (Bk. 2), assumed that
deities or human beings may have offspring in human form, even if
they themselves have assumed animal shapes.
Most Greeks rejected the new tradition when it was related to
Venus. But they gladly transferred it to Helen of Troy. Leda, they
said, had found the egg laid by Nemesis and had become the foster
mother of Helen. To this incident Sappho referred in one of her odes.
Presumably the egg must have been laid near Sparta. But afterwards
the worship of Nemesis was associated chiefly with a famous temple
at Rhamnus in Attica. Eratosthenes declared that Jupiter and Nem-
esis met at Rhamnus and there Nemesis laid the famous egg. A shep-
herd carried it to Leda. He added that Jupiter became, not a gander,
but a swan. This account was repeated by the Manual.
The Iliad spoke of Leda as the real mother of Helen. Sappho re-
garded her as only a foster mother. Still another tradition reconciled
the two accounts as follows. While Leda was bathing in the Spartan
river Eurotas, Jupiter disguised himself as one of the many swans
inhabiting the stream. By this means he readily surprised and seduced
her. Leda herself laid the egg which became Helen of Troy. The
idea that a young woman might lay an egg was in accord with general
savage belief. In countries as far apart as Java and Mexico, women
have been supposed occasionally to bear animal offspring. Euripides
incredulously told the new story in his drama Helen. The swan, he
said, appeared to be taking refuge from an eagle. This last circum-
stance did not appear in any subsequent version. Euripides told the
rest of the tale in his Iphtgenia at Aulis. The Manual recorded it;
Horace mentioned it in his Art of Poetry; and Ovid alluded to it often,
both in his Amores and in his correspondence between Paris and Helen.
Greek painters and sculptors delighted in representing Leda with'
the divine swan. A Pompeiian fresco showed the bird overcoming Leda
as she stood knee-deep in the water. But according to most paintings
he covered the lower half of her body with his outspread wings and tail
as she lay supine in a meadow. For contrast with the swan's white
plumage, the Greek painters often gave Leda black hair, and Ovid
mentioned the circumstance in his Amores. In the web of Arachne he
followed the usual artistic conception.
Another picture showed Jupiter courting Antiopa. According to
the Odyssey, she was a daughter of the Boeotian river Asopus, and
she boasted that Jove was the father of her twin sons, Amphion and
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Zethus, who built the walls of Thebes. Euripides in his tragedy Antiopa
declared that Jupiter took the form of a satyr. Both Horace and
Propertius alluded to the story, and Pacuvius adapted the version of
Euripides for the Roman stage. The Manual treated the subject also
but called Antiopa a daughter of Nycteus. Ovid followed the Manual
and spoke of Nycteus as the father of Antiopa, because in the next line
he was going to call Asopus father of the maiden Aegina.
In still another picture Arachne showed Jupiter with Alcmena.
As parents of the mighty Hercules, they had been a favorite theme of
Greek authors from the beginning. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey
mentioned them as parents of Hercules, and both poems indicated that
Alcmena was the wife of Amphitryon. The Shield of Hercules told the
story to the following effect. Amphitryon, prince of Tiryns, married
Alcmena. His bride persuaded him to depart immediately afterwards
on an expedition against the Taphians, in order to avenge the death of
her brothers. Meanwhile Jupiter, desiring a benefactor of gods and
men, consorted with Alcmena and became father of Hercules. Amphi-
tryon, returning soon after, became father of the slightly younger boy
Iphiclus. Here the tale included a belief, common among primitive
men, that, if twin children are born, one of them is the offspring of a
divinity. Sophocles, Euripides, and Phercydes retold the story in
works which now are lost. Many poets alluded to it, and Ovid himself
mentioned it both in his Amores and in his Epistle of Deianira.
In the story told by the Shield of Hercules Alcmena would seem
remarkably disloyal and ungrateful. Pindar gave a more favorable
version. Jupiter deceived her, he said, by taking the shape of Amphi-
tryon. This idea became the theme of a very popular Alexandrian
comedy, which Plautus adapted for the Roman stage. * The Manual,
repeating the story, added that Jupiter made deception still easier
by telling Alcmena news of Amphitryon's victory. Probably remem-
bering the account in the Manual, Ovid spoke of Arachne as including
the tale, despite a considerable anachronism.
In the next picture Arachne showed Jupiter with Danae, the future
mother of Perseus. Since the Iliad, Greek poets often had alluded to
the story. But the Manual seems to have been the first to say that
Danae was immured in a tower and that, to gain access, Jupiter be-
? Plautus suggested in turn the modern drama Amphitryon, one of the most
remarkable comedies of Moliere. Dryden made a crude adaptation of Moliere's play.
Two other leading modern dramatists handled the same theme, Rotrou in his Two
Sosias and Klelst in his Amphitryon.
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? PALLAS AND ARACHNE
came a shower of gold. Propertius referred to the incident; Horace
treated it satirically as evidence of the great obstacles which we may
overcome by improper use of riches; and in the Amores Ovid twice
followed his example. For the tale of Arachne he returned to the
older, literal meaning.
Arachne then portrayed Jupiter and Aegina. According to the
Manual, the god loved Aegina, daughter of the River Asopus, and car-
ried her off to the island which afterwards took her name. Other
Alexandrian versions added that Jupiter had disguised himself either
as an eagle or as a fire. Ovid followed the latter account. The dis-
guise as an eagle would have been more plausible, but he had used it
already in the myth of Asterie.
For the eighth picture Arachne chose Jupiter's courtship of
Mnemosyne, mother of the nine Muses. In the Theogony Jupiter chose
her as one of his seven lawful wives. In later tradition she became
one of the many goddesses whom he seduced. His disguise as a shep-
herd we know only from Ovid.
The ninth picture revealed still another amour of Jupiter. Ac-
cording to some Arcadian myths, Neptune and Ceres had been the
parents of Proserpina. In accord with this idea, a Cretan myth added
that Jupiter, taking the form of a snake, courted Proserpina, the
Queen of Hades, and became the father of Bacchus (cf. Semele, Bk. 3).
To seduce the wife of his own brother, Pluto, was in itself unusually
bad. But, since the time of the Odyssey, Jupiter had been regarded
ordinarily as himself the father of Proserpina. Hence, the affair was
a scandal which Ovid could mention effectively as Arachne's final insult
to the ruler of the gods.
The impious girl did not stop here. She proceeded to six illicit
amours of Neptune. In the Epistle of Hero, Ovid had listed seven
amours of this kind. * He now attributed an almost entirely different
list to Arachne.
First came the seduction of a daughter of the wind god, Aeolus,
For this purpose Neptune took the form of a bull. In some accounts
the maiden's name was Arne. The Manual named her Canace, adding
that she bore Neptune several children.
Then followed an adventure with Iphimedia, whom Ovid evidently
confused with Tyro. The Odyssey had given an account of both.
*These seven favorites of Neptune were Amymone, Tyro, Medusa, Alcyone,
Calyce, Laodice, and Celaeno.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Iphimedia, wife of Aloeiis, became the mother of two enormous boys,
who were called Aloidae from the name of their supposed father. The
mother declared them sons of Neptune. Tyro, wife of Cretheus, en-
gaged in a love affair with Enipeus, god of a Thessalian river. Nep-
tune, taking the form of her lover, seduced her and became the father
of Pelias and Neleus (cf. Bk. 7). Ovid spoke correctly of Iphimedia
as mother of the Aloidae, but he added mistakenly that she was de-
ceived by the impersonation of Enipeus.
A third picture showed Neptune with Theophane, daughter of
Bisaltus. The Alexandrian account seems to have been as follows.
Neptune taking the shape of a ram, carried Theophane to the island
of Crumissa in the Black Sea. There he transformed her into a ewe,
and they became parents of the famous ram with the golden fleece
(cf. Jason, Bk. 7). Greek authors attributed similar disguise as a
ram to Mercury in his courtship of Proserpina and to Pan in his court-
ship of Luna. In the tale of Theophane her offspring took the animal
form assumed by the parents. Such ideas have occurred often in savage
mythology. A certain Hindu goddess tried to escape her divine lover
by assuming one animal form after another. The lover always took
the same form and so became father of all the animal species.
Still another picture revealed Neptune's courtship of Ceres. The
Arcadians of a prehistoric time had worshiped not only Callisto, a
goddess in the form of a she-bear (cf. Bk. 2), and Io, a goddess in the
form of a cow (cf. Bk. 1), but also a third goddess in the form of a
mare, whom they identified later with Ceres. At Lycosura and else-
where their sculptors gave this goddess a human body with a mare's
head and mane. Neptune was supposed to have courted her, taking
himself the form of a stallion. According to the earlier version of the
myth, they became parents of the horse Arion and of the maiden
Proserpina. This was indicated in sculpture at Thelphusia. After-
wards the myth was related to the idea of Ceres as a goddess in human
form and to her famous quest for her daughter (cf. Bk. 5). While
the goddess wandered sadly through Arcadia, Neptune courted her.
Anxious to escape him, she took the form of a mare and entered the
cave at Phigalia. There she became the mother of Arion. As before
in the tale of Theophane, the offspring took the animal form assumed
by the parents. This version was shown in sculpture at Phigalia and
was mentioned by Herodotus. Ovid probably found the story in the
work of some Alexandrian author.
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? PALLAS AND ARACHNE
The fifth picture showed Neptune ravishing Medusa. The story
Ovid had told already in his Fourth Book, reserving for this passage
Neptune's disguise as a huge bird. But he should have said again that
Neptune followed Medusa into Athena's temple and defiled the shrine.
Arachne would not have omitted a circumstance so unwelcome to her
divine rival.
Last came Neptune's intrigue with Melantho, a daughter of Deu-
calion. To deceive her, the god took the form of a dolphin.
Following the nine pictures of Jupiter and the six of Neptune,
Arachne added four of Apollo. Callimachus had imagined that because
of fondness for Admetus, the god disguised himself as a farm hand (cf.
Battus, Bk. 2). This idea Arachne made the subject of a pictorial
design. Two other designs portrayed Apollo, first as a hawk and then
as a lion. These myths we know only from Ovid. The fourth picture
showed Apollo and Isse, daughter of Macareiis. She was a Lesbian
girl, in love with a shepherd. Apollo had impersonated her lover.
There still was room for two more pictures. The first showed
Bacchus transforming himself into a cluster of grapes, in order to
court Erigone, daughter of Tcarius. The second portrayed Saturn with
the nymph Philyra. According to the Titanomachia, Saturn took the
shape of a horse. Ovid followed a brilliant allusion to the story which
Vergil had made in the Georgics (cf. Ocyrhoe, Bk. 2). To complete the
work, Arachne enclosed all her pictures with a border of flowers and
twining ivy.
In planning the contest between Athena and Arachne, Ovid seems
to have given it the following course. Arachne was to challenge Athena.
Nymphs of the river Pactolus were to be appointed as judges. Athena
was to portray edifying themes in a simple, orderly design. Arachne
was to portray impious themes in a design which, although full of
interest, was ill arranged and over crowded.