*tribal drumming*
Athena was affluent in the world of men with
many stories to her prestige in battle, her
wisdom and kindness.
But like many of the gods her ego was inflated
and was very easily jealous of another, especially
a mortal.
And one of those mortals was Arachne.
Arachne was a young woman who lived in Lydia,
a region famous for its purple dye.
Arachne’s passion and greatest joy above
all else was weaving.
It was said that she wove the most beautiful
things any mortal had ever seen: cloaks without
weight, yet warmer then a wolves fur; tapestries
so real that birds would fly down and attempt
to eat fruit off the woven bough.
Everyone praised young Arachne and soon after
she began to praise herself:
“I, I am the greatest weaver in all the
world.
The greatest since the world began, no doubt.
In fact, I can weave better than Athena herself.”
But what Arachne didn’t know is that the
gods are very quick to hear criticism and
very swift to act.
Athena came down to earth and the small village
where Arachne lived.
The young woman was inside spinning when she
heard a knock at the door.
She opened it and there stood a lady so monumentally
tall and gorgeous that Arachne must've known
immediately who it was.
It was the goddess Athena!
Arachne stunned by the aura fell to her knees
and the sky shouted far above her head.
“Yes, miserable girl, I am Athena.
I am the goddess you have mocked, Is there
any reason I should not kill you?”
Arachne completely mortified shook her head
and began to weep.
“Very well,” said Athena.
“Prepare yourself for death.
You have defied the gods and must die.”
Just as Athena was about to plunge a dagger
into her chest Arachne found the courage to
get up and say, “Before I die, great Athena,
let me give you a present.”
She opened the basket and took out a lovely
cloak she had woven and gave it to Athena:
“Take this cloak.
It must often get cold up high on Olympus.
This will shield you from the wind.
Please take it.
I am sure you have nothing so fine.”
Great Athena took the cloak and said, “Poor
child.
You are being destroyed by your own worth.
Your talent has poisoned you with pride like
the sting of a scorpion.
So that which makes beauty brings death.
But it is a handsome cloak, and I appreciate
the gift.
I will give you one chance.
You have boasted that you can spin and weave
better than I -- than I, who may I remind
you, invented the loom!
The distaff!
And the spindle!
And out of the fleece of the clouds wove the
first counterpane for my father, Zeus, who
likes to sleep warm, and I dyed it with all
the colors of the sunset.
But you say you can weave better than I.
Very well, you shall have a chance to prove
it.
And your own villagers shall judge.
Seven days from today, we shall meet.
You will set your spindle in that meadow,
and I shall be in my place, and we shall have
a contest.
You will weave what you will, and I shall
do so too.
Then we will show what we have done, and the
people will judge.
If you win, I shall withdraw the punishment.
If you lose, it is your life.
Do you agree?”
“Oh, yes,” said Arachne.
“Thank you, dear goddess, for sparing my
life.”
“It is not yet spared,” said Athena.
Word of the competition swept the region of
Lydia and villages from all over came to watch
this epic battle of loomers.
Arachne’s house faced a great meadow with
a hill at the end.
She stationed herself on the porch of her
cottage.
Athena the size of a giant carried her loom
to the top of the hill and stationed herself
there.
The young Arachne went first.
As she spun the loom and weaved her hands
through the air the crowd moved in closer
and closer watching intently.
Her hands danced around the spindle and it
was said that her working was just as beautiful
as her work, while she argued that it was
the same thing.
The villagers laughed joyously at the scene
of two peoples lives.
A boy and a girl running through the meadow
being chased by a black dog, then a young
woman combing her hair, and a young man on
the cliffs edge counting the waves, then the
two together side beside in marriage.
Arachne then remembered Athena’s counterpanes
that she made for her father and Arachne began
weaving one’s a sunset purple in honor of
the great Athena.
Athena curtsied to Arachne’s display of
the spindle and began to spin.
Athena did not comb fleece or draw thread
but instead pulled from the clouds, using
cloud wool which is known by the gods to be
the finest stuff on earth.
Athena created things unimaginable to the
minds of villagers, the dawn of time, the
birth of man and then the future of man.
The future in which man grows huge and tyrannical,
with trees turning into spikes and lush beautiful
fields becoming thick stone.
The future in which man is swollen with pride,
building something so loathsome that he had
to eventually look away.
This was too much for the puny villagers,
they fell to their knees and wept.
Arachne watched, stunned with glittering eyes
but when the people fell to their knees she
turned away.
She walked quietly to a small grove of trees,
took a rope and hung herself.
Athena spoke no word making her way to the
grove.
She saw Arachne, her face black with bulging
eyes.
Athena touched Arachne and her body shriveled
up, her legs multiplied and the death rope
instead became a long white thread.
The creature lowered itself to a low bush
and began cast loops with the thread for it
knew it was meant to spin without rivalry
until the end of time.
And that is why spiders are called Arachnids
by those who know them best.
HIDDEN TEACHINGS
The tale of Arachne has been told to generations
of youth on the dangers of the ego and threatening
of the gods.
That the dissertation of life is a meer fallacy
amongst the vast cosmos.
Many reactions to this story are, “Wow,
Athena was so mean!” or “Poor, poor Arachne.”
But many fail to look deeper at the implications
of this myth.
Arachne was a young vibrant girl who wanted
the praise of gods and in doing that she brought
about her own self-destruction.
Her ego was fed to illusory effects that it
took the point of mortal death to snap her
out of it.
And even then she was still ambitious enough
to challenge the great Athena in a competition
only fit for gods.
But let us look at a vastly more important
tone relating to our own society.
To give you context I will play a clip from
Fight Club.
"We're the middle children of the history
man, no purpose or place, we have no Great
war, no Great depression, our great war is
a spiritual war, our great depression is our
lives.
We've been all raised by television to believe
that one day we'd all be millionaires and
movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and
we're slowly learning that fact.
And we're very very pissed off.”
In the modern age of western civilization
we are bred to think that if we are not movie
stars, rockstars or wealthy business people
then we are inadequate.
That our very existence is superficial, but
everyone’s existence is superficial, even
if you are a famous person on planet earth.
Let’s take this quote: “Athena created
things unimaginable to the minds of villagers,
the dawn of time, the birth of man and then
the future of man.”
The very idea that you are of greater nature
then gods will ultimately lead to your own
self-destruction.
Personally I am an overly-confident person
and I do have a bit of an ego, but I am aware
that my ego causes me suffering.
When we are not aware of our own personal
development, it becomes dangerous.
But even lessons on the ego are not going
deep enough for this story.
What if all of us were god, what if all of
us had our own divine being inside of us,
what then?
If all of us are divine in some form or another
then we are all god.
Then we are all in some sense the same.
And if we are all god then why should we place
judgement on others.
What is to say that we are better than someone
else, if that someone else is us.
There is an ancient Zulu African Proverb known
as Ubuntu: “I am who I am because of who
you are.”
On the basic human biological level we are
all the same.
Our genetic makeup has built us for the same
purpose, survival.
More or less we all look the same and could
perform the same actions.
Now let us look at the other part of what
Athena created: “Athena created things unimaginable
to the minds of villagers, the dawn of time,
the birth of man and then the future of man.
The future in which man grows huge and tyrannical,
with trees turning into spikes and lush beautiful
fields becoming thick stone.
The future in which man is swollen with pride,
building something so loathsome that he had
to eventually look away.”
If you feed the ego you will grow huge and
tyrannical.
We have seen this with men all over the centuries
of human development.
It is interesting how the Ancient Greeks very
much predicted our present.
We turned fields into cities of ugly concrete.
And we are very much swollen with pride, we
have built civilizations that don’t care
about the surrounding environment, nature,
armies that destabilize other cultures, nations
so vast that undermining them would take godly
intervention.
In a sense Athena for told what would happen
if we let ourselves be swept away with ego.
And many of us didn't listen.
But you can listen now, you can heed Athena’s
warning.
In the description there is a link to our
FREE Facebook group, Warrior Mythos.
There people just like you and me use the
Greek Myths and lesson of the Ancients to
better themselves.
To free themselves from their ego, if you
join now you will be taking your first steps
towards self-liberation and true happiness.
If this video helped you then I encourage
you to support the channel by leaving a like
and subscribing.
Be careful out there, legend.
*tribal drumming*
