'spider', cognate with Latin araneus)[1] is the protagonist of a tale in Greek mythology known primarily from the version told by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE), which is the earliest extant source for the story.

[2] In Book Six of his epic poem Metamorphoses, Ovid recounts how the talented mortal Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest.

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.

At the time, weaving was a common metaphor for poetry, therefore Arachne's artistry and Athena's censorship of it may offer a provocative allegory of the writer's role under an autocratic regime.

She depicted Zeus transformed into: a bull for Europa, an eagle for Asteria, a swan for Leda, a satyr for Antiope, Amphitryon for Alcmene, golden shower for Danaë, flame for Aegina, a shepherd for Mnemosyne, and a snake for Persephone.

Poseidon transformed into a bull for Canace, Enipeus for Iphimedeia,[a] a ram for Theophane, a horse for Demeter, a bird for Medusa, and a dolphin for Melantho.

Apollo transformed into a shepherd for Issa, and further as a countryman, a hawk, and a lion on three more obscure occasions, Dionysus as 'delusive grapes' for Erigone, and finally Cronus as a horse for Philyra.

[8] An ancient Corinthian aryballos dating to the sixth-century BC has been suggested to depict the weaving contest of Athena and Arachne, which would make it the earliest attestation of the myth if accurate.

[9][10] However it has been noted that this interpretation is not an indisputable one, and the aryballos could be just depicting Athena teaching the art of weaving to the people, with no relation to Arachne whatsoever.

[16] Spenser's adaptation, which "rereads an Ovidian story in terms of the Elizabethan world" is designed to provide a rationale for the hatred of Arachne's descendant Aragnoll for the butterfly-hero Clarion.

"His back and all his belly and both flanks were painted arabesques and curlicues: the Turks and Tartars never made a fabric with richer colors intricately woven, nor were such complex webs spun by Arachne.