Arachne, or the Metamorphosis of Labor

Arachne, one of the most widely discussed figures in Ovid’s metamorphic universe, has often been seen as one of many doppelgängers of the poet. Particular attention has been devoted to the contest between the highly talented Maeonian girl and Minerva: their respective tapestries have been read as manifestos of different poetics, and the final transformation, inscribed in the very name of the protagonist, has been seen as an allegorical transfiguration of Ovid’s own exile. This chapter, following the path suggested by the editors of this volume, focuses on Arachne herself as a worker, proposing two interrelated points. Firstly, Arachne is punished by the goddess in a particularly ingenious way because her work as a weaver is now deprived of the significance of art and reduced to pure labor, which is the bodily necessity of a spider but bearing no meaning. Secondly, Arachne, although she fully masters her art, audaciously but consistently refuses to identify with the profession of a weaver. Minerva’s punishment re-establishes the balance: as a spider, Arachne is compelled to weave by a natural necessity, reducing her will to an endless but meaningless activity that leaves no room for her intellectual aspirations; her imaginative work ends up being only pure labor.