Salvete Latinists!

Welcome to your student edition of "Pallas Minerva Challenges Arachne". This guide includes a basic introduction to Ovid, the Metamorphoses, and the characters within this poem, a well written and clear translation, notes on vocabulary, grammar, and cultural significance, a rich thematic analysis, and finally the scansion of the poem. Hopefully you will find my detailed guide both educational and interesting.

 

This poem is a part of the myth about Arachne and Minerva, which is in Book VI of the Metamorphoses. The myth is about a weaving competition between Minerva and a talented young woman named Arachne who boasted that she would be able to defeat her. It begins with the goddess, who after hearing the hubristic rumours of Arachne, disguises herself as an old woman and tries to persuade her that challenging a goddess is an idiotic move. But, Arachne doesn't listen to her advice and thus Minerva transforms herself back to her true form. The weaving competition commences. When they finish, Minerva agrees that Arachne has won. The goddess, frustrated with her loss against a mortal, destroys Arachne's tapestry and bashes her head with a spool. The young woman hangs herself in shame, but Minerva takes pity and turns her into a spider.

 

The section of the myth that this student edition will focus on is the dialogue of Minerva's confrontation towards Arachne, as well as the beginning of the weaving competition. 

Now that we have the basic plot over with let us dive deeper into the complexities of this beautiful myth!

-Aurelia