The myth of Arachne can also be seen as an attempt to show relation between art and tyrannical power in Ovid's time. Her slender fingers stuck to her sides as legs, the rest is belly, from which she still spins a thread, and, as a spider, weaves her ancient web." With it went her nose and ears, her head shrank to the smallest size, and her whole body became tiny. Out of love for Arachne, Athena said, "Live on then, and yet hang, condemned one, but, lest you are careless in the future, this same condition is declared, in punishment, against your descendants, to the last generation!" After saying this she sprinkled her with the juice of Hecate's herb, and immediately at the touch of this dark poison, Arachne's hair fell out. Terrified and ashamed, Arachne hanged herself. She ripped Arachne's work to shreds and hit her on the head three times. When Athena saw that Arachne had not only insulted the gods but done so with a work far more beautiful than Athena's own, she was enraged. Arachne's weaving depicted ways that the gods, particularly Zeus, had misled and abused mortals, tricking, and seducing many women. Athena's weaving represented four separate contests between mortals and the gods in which the gods punished mortals for setting themselves as equals of the gods. Athena removed her disguise and appeared in shimmering glory, clad in a sparkling white chiton. "Ha! I only speak the truth and if Athena thinks otherwise then let her come down and challenge me herself," Arachne replied. Plead for forgiveness and Athena might spare your soul." Presenting herself as an old lady, she approached the boasting girl and warned: "You can never compare to any of the gods. Athena took offense and set up a contest between them. She became a great weaver, boasted that her skill was greater than Athena's, and refused to acknowledge that her skill came, at least in part, from the goddess. In Metamorphoses the Roman poet Ovid writes that Arachne was a shepherd's daughter who began weaving at an early age.
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