Lydian weaver famed through Hypaepa and Colophon — daughter of the dyer Idmon — who challenged Athena and wove the gods' crimes until Minerva tore her web; hanged herself, and was saved only as a spider dangling forever on her thread.1
When the Pierides were turned to magpies, Minerva brooded on another mortal who denied her art — Arachne, whose skill in wool had made her famous through Lydia though her father Idmon dyed fleeces at Colophon. Nymphs left Timolus and Pactolus to watch her spin; she boasted that she needed no teacher and dared the goddess herself to a contest.2
Athena wove the court of the gods and the dispute of Athens; Arachne answered with Europa on the bull, Leda and the swan, and every divine disguise — a tapestry flawless in craft that confessed the gods' deceits. Finding no flaw, Minerva tore the web and struck Arachne upon the head; the mortal hanged herself, and the goddess sprinkled her with Hecate's juice until she shrank into a spider.3
The rumour ran through Lydia to Phrygia and soon reached Niobe — who learned nothing from the fate she had once known at Maeonia. Ovid alone tells the weaver's transformation; the tale is Roman literary license rather than an archaic Greek cult legend.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story