"Arachne, this is breathtaking. 🌙 What a stunning lesson in modesty. Real strength doesn’t need a spotlight; it just needs to be true. After years of feeling like I had to 'do' so much to survive, there is such peace in the idea of just being.
It reminds me that I don't have to 'shout' to be seen or felt. Just like the moon and the tides, there is so much power in simply being authentic. I’m learning to trust my own gravity and let the 'natural' me just shine, and I’m finding so much resonance in that today. Thank you for weaving such beautiful truth! ✨❤️"
This isn’t really a transformation story. It’s a silencing that learns how to speak again. And it refuses to let its voice be sanctified.
Athena doesn’t just punish the craft, she redraws the boundary of what can be shown, what can be named, what must remain “appropriate.” And what unsettles her is not the skill, but the gaze behind it. The fact that the weaving sees too clearly.
What lingers for me is that final inversion: exile becomes permission.
Not freedom in the way it’s usually offered: no audience, no validation, no shared language, but a more subterranean kind. The kind where truth no longer asks to be agreed with. It simply continues, thread by thread, in the dark.
And the spider… isn’t just a curse here. It’s what remains when expression no longer negotiates with power.
It felt less like arrival, more like recognition, like something already woven finding its echo in another thread.
Your poem doesn’t really sit still long enough to be received politely. It lingers. It keeps working at the edges, the way a quiet truth does when it hasn’t asked for permission to be named.
So if anything landed, it wasn’t just the poem. It was that insistence beneath it, to keep weaving even after the world decides what should be torn.
Found it ... Arachne ! ... excellent ... Athena was a real case ! All these gods were.
Very beautifully written and recorded ... very well done ! sensuality came from your version ... unusual !
I was debating whether to have Athena in my next play ... now I'll think about it in a different way ... I'll look for Persephone now ... another sad one, I'm afraid !!!
here’s another timeless tale to be taken into consideration: Baucis and Philemon …the elderly couple changed into an intertwining pair of trees, an oak and linden…
This poem is an instant classic... in more than one sense of the word! A classical tale, told faithfully in strict ballad form. It is no weaker than any other piece preserved through ages in folklore, or regularly included in children's books about myth and legend.
10/10, and truly deserving of a laurel crown! Read this. Unless you despise poetry.
Just now found this one, and I love it on more than one level. Not only the skillful weaving of the ancient tale into verse, but my friendship with the daughters and sons of Arachne; my house is not only home to my dogs and cats, but a number of spiders. We all get along fine, the orb weavers who grace my front porch with their incredible creations, taking them down at dawn then rebuilding new ones at dusk, And the cellar spiders, so called, with their thin, graceful legs, adorning the kitchen and living room windows, doing their best to rid us of gnats, flies and mosquitoes. The occasional wolf spider comes in for a visit but they are quite shy ( and intelligent) so they usually stay only briefly. I will read this to my kitchen spiders tonight. Thank you!
they are a delight!!!! They come to recognize the faces of human friends and will sometimes come forth to greet them! Sadly, I seldom have them in my part of the world but they bring me joy when we to encounter one another!
Filing under "Pride goeth before the fall"
Exceptionally well done. To hit every beat of the story in rhyme is no small feat.
I read this slowly, like it deserved silence around it. Thank you for writing something so honest.
Thank you so much, Lauren. 🥀
This is brilliant. I’ve always thought the myth of Arachne was very haunting.
Thank you so much! 🥀🕸️
Such beautiful poetry.
I love stories like this.
You know, the kind without any sugarcoating and happily ever after.
Thank you! 🖤
That was a fantastic re-telling of that story. Beautiful and you wrapped up the tragedy of it all so nicely at the end.
Thank you so much. 🖤
"Arachne, this is breathtaking. 🌙 What a stunning lesson in modesty. Real strength doesn’t need a spotlight; it just needs to be true. After years of feeling like I had to 'do' so much to survive, there is such peace in the idea of just being.
It reminds me that I don't have to 'shout' to be seen or felt. Just like the moon and the tides, there is so much power in simply being authentic. I’m learning to trust my own gravity and let the 'natural' me just shine, and I’m finding so much resonance in that today. Thank you for weaving such beautiful truth! ✨❤️"
Love ♥️ ❤️ 😍 you xxx
This isn’t really a transformation story. It’s a silencing that learns how to speak again. And it refuses to let its voice be sanctified.
Athena doesn’t just punish the craft, she redraws the boundary of what can be shown, what can be named, what must remain “appropriate.” And what unsettles her is not the skill, but the gaze behind it. The fact that the weaving sees too clearly.
What lingers for me is that final inversion: exile becomes permission.
Not freedom in the way it’s usually offered: no audience, no validation, no shared language, but a more subterranean kind. The kind where truth no longer asks to be agreed with. It simply continues, thread by thread, in the dark.
And the spider… isn’t just a curse here. It’s what remains when expression no longer negotiates with power.
Thank you for reading it so deeply, Dipti. I'm glad it landed. 🖤
Sometimes “landing” is too gentle a word.
It felt less like arrival, more like recognition, like something already woven finding its echo in another thread.
Your poem doesn’t really sit still long enough to be received politely. It lingers. It keeps working at the edges, the way a quiet truth does when it hasn’t asked for permission to be named.
So if anything landed, it wasn’t just the poem. It was that insistence beneath it, to keep weaving even after the world decides what should be torn.
🕷️I loved it! Thank you for sharing your art🖤🥀
Glad you enjoyed it!
Found it ... Arachne ! ... excellent ... Athena was a real case ! All these gods were.
Very beautifully written and recorded ... very well done ! sensuality came from your version ... unusual !
I was debating whether to have Athena in my next play ... now I'll think about it in a different way ... I'll look for Persephone now ... another sad one, I'm afraid !!!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!
is Persephone hidden away underground ? I can’t seem to find her …
https://labyrinthiamythweaver.substack.com/p/of-spring-and-hell?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2hpdsh
Here she is.
one of the lesser but great story told…
here’s another timeless tale to be taken into consideration: Baucis and Philemon …the elderly couple changed into an intertwining pair of trees, an oak and linden…
Heyyyy, I wrote a close reading of this poem. https://open.substack.com/pub/readmoreliterarytheory/p/arachne-a-close-reading?r=7jaybk&utm_medium=ios
Love it!!
“I fled, I cried, I begged the gods,
But none stood by my side.
I tied the rope about my neck—
My final act of pride.” Love!
Thank you so much! 🕸️🖤
This poem is an instant classic... in more than one sense of the word! A classical tale, told faithfully in strict ballad form. It is no weaker than any other piece preserved through ages in folklore, or regularly included in children's books about myth and legend.
10/10, and truly deserving of a laurel crown! Read this. Unless you despise poetry.
Thank you so much. 🖤🖤🖤🖤
No... thank you. We need more masterfully-crafted formal poetry like this, to help us remember. These days, even The North is forgetting...
So beautiful 💜👾
Thank you! 🥀
So many goosebumps, omg!!! Your reading is perfect, and the poem is heartbreaking in its truth 😥
Thank you so much 💜👾
Just now found this one, and I love it on more than one level. Not only the skillful weaving of the ancient tale into verse, but my friendship with the daughters and sons of Arachne; my house is not only home to my dogs and cats, but a number of spiders. We all get along fine, the orb weavers who grace my front porch with their incredible creations, taking them down at dawn then rebuilding new ones at dusk, And the cellar spiders, so called, with their thin, graceful legs, adorning the kitchen and living room windows, doing their best to rid us of gnats, flies and mosquitoes. The occasional wolf spider comes in for a visit but they are quite shy ( and intelligent) so they usually stay only briefly. I will read this to my kitchen spiders tonight. Thank you!
I'm obsessed with jumping spiders, they're my favorite.
they are a delight!!!! They come to recognize the faces of human friends and will sometimes come forth to greet them! Sadly, I seldom have them in my part of the world but they bring me joy when we to encounter one another!
Wow!!! This is awesome! Well done!
Thank you so much!!!