Weaving the Fabric of Myth: “The True, Unexpurgated, and Real Story behind the Myth of Athena and Arachne.”

Dr. Sherwood will discuss the importance of weaving as a practical and aesthetic art, and as a metaphor. She then focuses on the myth of Athena and Arachne as recorded in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Using material from archaeological, literary, and anthropological sources, she uncovers the historical context of the myth buried under the patriarchal suppression of history and cultures by the conquering Greeks, as well as a later distortion by Dryden, its early English translator. Finally, she will reimagine the myth from the point of view of Arachne herself, taking us into the world of the goddess Cybele in which Arachne wove her exquisite tapestries.