#<- punishments for hubris & arachnes depicting the ways power has allowed the gods to abuse mortals)

[iphigeniacomplex]

obligatory note that i know very little about ancient greek culture, stories, & beliefs beyond my greek mythology phase from ages 8 to 11 but i get sooo pissed off abt arachne bc she literally WAS better than athena. like sorry a bad bitch said she was a bad bitch and then was able to actually prove it?? WHAT happened to sisterhood. & then when arachnes like guess i’ll kill myself after literally being humiliated by a goddess in front of everyone — for being better than her — it’s STILL not enough so athena decides to i have no mouth and i must scream this woman for literally committing the crime of 1) understanding her own skill and refusing to undermine her art 2) factually challenging authority even to the face of a god and 3) being better than she is. athena was up on olympus hating from a cracked screen on an empty stomach literally disgusting.

#it speaks! #this is very obviously like an im about to go to bed post but in a genuine sense i think theres a lot of commentary in this story -> #<- regarding the necessary futility of using art to challenge absolute power. like both tapestries were factual (athenas speaking on -> #<- punishments for hubris & arachnes depicting the ways power has allowed the gods to abuse mortals) #but one of them is intended to evoke respect out of fear and the other is meant to hold a mirror to what ppl are afraid to speak about. #& like the gods are not ‘absolute power’ in the sense of being an oppressive regime they are absolute power in the sense of being -> #<- literally the world itself. like there can be no genuine revolt from arachne against the gods. #which strikes me as likely how ancient ppl like ovid would have viewed emperors and the systems they lived under in a more tangible sense #but thats obviously my very modern & usamerican read .. will def further explore the topic i do think of it quite a bit in this context