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Home , Arete, Atropos (Goya), Destiny, Horae, Metis (mythology), Minyades

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Unravelling Mythology: Mythological Figures Who Spin

by Mireia Rosich

1 IRLOTSee C , Juan In many and stories, spinning appears as a symbol of creation: it is Eduardo, Diccionario to fashion the very thread of life. In these tales, spinning, singing and dancing1 de símbolos, Ed. Siruela, Barcelona, 2016. are magical actions that create and sustain life. Mythologies and are 2 OUSTONH , Jean, La diosa packed with symbols of this sort that must be disentangled exactly as if we were y el héroe, Editorial Planeta, unravelling a thread. As Jean Houston says, “A is something that never Buenos Aires, 1993, p. 18. was but that is always happening”2. The poetic and symbolic language that is 3 , . Chief source for exploring the used in all traditions when trying to address subjects of great importance is cosmogony and theogony of the only one that takes us to the boundary between the human and the divine, Greek culture. the visible and the hidden. Spinning and unravelling are highly symbolic in 4 HESIOD, Theogony, 217 their own right. This paper sets out to look closely at the mythological figures and 901f. Hesiod describes them as the daughters of who spin and to give examples of how they have been represented at different Night and Darkness and also periods in the of . as the daughters of and . It is common to find The : Spinners of more than one version. 5 Idem. In , the symbology of thread is part of the very mystery of life. 6 Their original names are In their account of the creation of the universe3, everything emerges from Μοῖραι, and Nornir, . From out of the chaos came the original creatures, which gave human respectively. 7 speaks of the form to abstract concepts that frightened human as they stood helpless Moirai, or , as destiny, before the immensity of . The Moirai, or Fates, were the first spinners. while Hesiod speaks of three They were the immediate daughters of Night () and Darkness ()4 figures. and they personified the destiny of each person. No or god, however strong 8 The sisters of the Moirai are the , who also number he or she might be, could change destiny because the natural balance of the three. Other figures like the universe cannot be upset. As a result, even Zeus feared the Moirai5. The three Graces and the are Greek Moirai have a Roman counterpart in the Parcae and a Norse counterpart further examples of the many 6 7 8 female triads. in the . These three female deities – triads are very typical – are tasked 9 It is also catalogued as “Las with regulating the life of mortals as symbolised by a thread. would Parcas”. spin the thread with a spinning wheel; would spool and measure the length of the thread; and the third and most fearful sister, , would raise her golden shears to snip the end of the thread. Atropos9 is the title of

40 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN 38 open source language version > català

Atropos, or The Fates, Francisco de Goya, 1819-23. .

The Fates, Alfred-Pierre Joseph Agache, 1885. Palais des Beaux- de Lille.

41 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN 38 open source language version > català

Ariadne and , Niccolò Bambini, c. 1680-1700.

10 Originally, it hung in the a Goya painting, now hanging in the Prado Museum10, in which the Moirai house known as the “Quinta appear represented with the painter’s hallmark style, familiar from his “Black del Sordo” (Villa of the Deaf) 11 12 purchased by Goya on the Paintings” . In a work by Alfred Agache entitled Les Parques (or The Fates), the outskirts of . For more onlooker can see the three different tasks and the spinning wheel, which is also , see SÁNCHEZ analogous with the wheel of fortune13. Is it chance, coincidence or the divine CANTÓN, Francisco Javier, Goya y sus pinturas negras that lies behind everything? Whichever it may be, it always turns, like a wheel. en la , Barcelona, Vergara, 1963. : The Thread of the Labyrinth

11 Goya painted his series 14 of “” in the is a large island that was home to the enigmatic Minoan culture , which 15 Quinta del Sordo. Idem. is related to King . Ariadne gave a thread to the Theseus that saved 12 Alfred-Pierre Joseph his life because it helped him to find his way back through the intricate tunnels Agache (1843-1915) was a of the ’s cave after he had slain the beast. Ariadne and her thread are French academic painter. See MARTIN, Jules, Nos peintres crucial because they enable Theseus to accomplish his feat and break the curse et sculpteurs, graveurs, by tying one end of the thread to the labyrinth door and unwinding it as he dessinateurs, Flammarion, goes forward. Curiously, few artists have depicted Ariadne herself carrying the 1897, p. 11. thread. She is shown doing so, however, in a painting by the Italian Niccolò 13 The symbol of the wheel of fortune is frequently used Bambini, where we witness her giving the spool of thread to the hero in the in antiquity and the Middle foreground16. Most painters and sculptors, by contrast, have frozen her at the Ages. See CHEVA LIER, J. moment when she awakens on the island of and realises that Theseus has and GHEERBRANDT, A., 17 Diccionario de los símbolos, abandoned her . Yet the importance of Ariadne’s thread should not be forgotten, Barcelona, Herder, 2003. nor should what it symbolises about the inner labyrinths of all human beings. 14 Between 3000 and 1200 B.C., the culture known as Minoan emerged on 15 IMALSee GR , Pierre, 16 Niccolò Bambini Naxos. Most artists depict Crete. The culture was Diccionario de Mitología Griega (1651‑1736) was a Venetian her abandonment: Tiepolo, called Minoan because its y Romana, Paidós, 1981. For artist of the early Baroque Angelica Kauffman, Frederick discoverers connected it to the classical sources on Ariadne: period. Watts, John William ruins of King Minos’ Palace of see Apollodorus, , 17 Ariadne escapes with Waterhouse and others. Knossos and the well-known or , to name but Theseus, but he leaves her legend of the Minotaur. a few. behind on the island of

42 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN Girls on . East frieze of the , c. 447-433 B.C. British Museum.

A thena: Patron of Weavers

18 In fact, she is the daughter One of the most important gods in the Olympic pantheon is , who of Zeus and , the sprang directly from the head of Zeus18. She gives her name to the city of who personifies intelligence. Zeus had , over which she presides as protector. Venerated in the Parthenon with 19 devoured Metis while she was a gigantic sculpture made by Phidias , she is a complex goddess linked to a pregnant. GRIMAL, Op. cit. host of myths and characters. Of interest here is her role as the patron of arts 19 The chryselephantine and crafts20, specifically of weavers and spinners. Athena is a master not only sculpture, which was made to represent Athena in the of literal weaving, using threads, but also of symbolic weaving, as a weaver of 21 Parthenon, stood more than thoughts. She instils cunning in and , among others . 12 metres high. It was the The , which were held in her honour, were one of the most work of Phidias (fifth century important festivals in the Greek world. The most solemn and splendid part of the B.C.), who is regarded as the 22 greatest sculptor of Ancient ceremonies was the procession to the Acropolis. A special robe (a peplos) was Greece. brought to the goddess as an offering. Months before the ceremony, virgin girls 20 Athena “symbolises known as arrēphoroi23 were selected to take part in the weaving of the garment24. , civilisation, the Making textiles stood as the quintessential example of women’s work and great political community of the city, the spiritual and care was taken in the training of girls and in the sanctification of the art. manual activities that must be carried out with intelligence: en literatura, música, artes HOUSTON, Op. cit. p. 222. sacrificio y mito entre los philosophy, poetry, , plásticas y teatro, Madrid, 22 This is a common garment griegos, Barcelona, Acantilado, and she is also the patron of Akal, 1997. worn by women throughout 2011. handicrafts, such as the art 21 Athena appears at various Ancient Greece. 24 To finish the work, many of weaving”. MOORMANN, points in The to 23 other women would later join Eric M, De Acteón a Zeus: This is addressed in great give them instructions. This BURKERT in. Op. cit. Burkert. temas de mitología clásica detail in , Walter, is analysed symbolically in El origen salvaje: ritos de

43 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN The Spinners, Diego Velázquez, 1656. Museo del Prado.

A rachne: The Invisible Thread

25 The myth is out in As a great weaver, Athena is linked to the myth of Arachne25, a mortal who Ovid’s , VI, 5, dared to challenge Athena to a contest and boasted that she was a better weaver. among other sources. 26 The scene of the fable The insolence of a woman is usually punished by the gods with violence. Even of Arachne appears in the though Arachne’s ability was proved in the contest, Athena took offence and painting’s background. struck the girl with a shuttle. Distraught, Arachne tried to hang herself. The Athena is the figure wearing goddess, however, stopped her and turned her into a spider. Now she will always the metal helmet, her chief attribute. spin a beautiful, but invisible thread. A famous work by Velázquez known as 26 27 This painting has been Las Hilanderas (The Spinners) depicts the scene in the background, where the addressed by many authors. viewer can distinguish Athena by her helmet27. See: ANGULO, Diego, La mitología en el arte español: The Minyades: Challenging del Renacimiento a Velázquez, Madrid, Real Academia de Clearly, the gods were not to be angered, because their wrath would fall Historia, 2010, pp. 215ff. inexorably on human beings. Precisely because they remained at home 28 King of . 28 Eponymous with the embroidering, the three daughters of , known as the Minyades, were Minyans, a name borne by punished by Dionysus (or Bacchus)29, who would not stand for their failure the inhabitants of a region of to attend the festivals of his worship in the role of or Bacchants30. at the of Homer. Op. Cit. GRIMAL. 29 Dionysus was also called Thyiades, were part of the world of art, the Bacchants . In classical literature, Bacchus (Βκχος in Greek, large and frenzied following of have been highly represented, a key example appears in Bacchus in ). Dionysus. The name Bacchant often covered in animal skins, Euripides’ play The Bacchae, 30 The Bacchants, also known comes from Bacchus (see wearing a crown of ivy like an Attic of the fifth as Bacchae or Maenads or previous footnote). In the the god, and brandishing a century B.C.

44 THE SEWING MACHINE AND THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF WOMEN: PARALLEL LIVES 38 open source language version > català

Philomela, Edward Coley Burne‑Jones, 1896. British Museum.

31 For more information on The festivals sacred to Dionysus were one of the few public appearances in the Maenads and their : rituals that were allowed to high-born women31. The punishment meted out PAUL VEYNE, François and LISSARRAGUE, Françoise, by the god of wine for scorning him was to make vines and ivy grow from the Los misterios del Gineceo, chairs of the Minyades to give them milk and wine. Once they had imbibed, the Madrid, Akal, 2003 and young women fell deep into a mystical madness that led them to tear apart one BURKERT, Walter, Cultos 32 mistericos antiguos, Madrid, of their own sons as if he were a stag . Trotta, cop. 2005. 32 There are different versions Philomela: Embroidering Misfortune of the sisters’ punishment. See GRIMAL Op. cit. A young child was also the scapegoat of a tale of adultery related to sewing. 33 33 The myth of Philomela In this case, the protagonist is Philomela, an Athenian princess , who was is set out in PAUSANIAS, I, raped by her sister’s husband. To conceal his attack, the brother-in-law cut out 41, 8f., APPOLODORUS, Philomela’s tongue and shut her away in a cabin in the woods. Rendered unable Bibliotecha, III, 14, 8. OVID, Metamorphoses VI, 426. to speak, she nevertheless wove a to tell her tale. When it reached her 34 Procne, Philomela’s sister Procne, Procne took revenge by cooking her own son by the rapist and sister, was able to serving him as a meal to the man34. In a wood-engraving, Edward Burne- her own son Itys to punish Jones35 depicts Philomela shut away and standing by her loom. her husband Tereus. She cooked her son and fed him to her unwitting husband. Homer’s Weavers When he learnt what had happened, he snatched up an Penelope is the most celebrated of the female figures who weave. To prepare axe and pursued Procne and a shroud for her father-in-law Laertes, her husband Odysseus’ father, she Philomela, who were rescued weaves by day and unravels her work by night. With this activity, which was only when the gods turned unimpeachable because it represented women’s work par excellence, Penelope them into birds. Sources cited in the previous footnote. 35 Edward Coley Burne- Brotherhood, which was a British Jones (1833-1898) was an school of art in the late nineteenth English painter and member century that reinterpreted many of the Pre-Raphaelite ancient myths and medieval legends.

45 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN 38 open source language version > català

Penelope and the Suitors, John William Waterhouse, 1912. Aberdeen Art Gallery.

36 In the book by MOSSE, deceived her suitors for years36 and was able to buy Claude, La mujer en la Grecia time for Odyssey to return home. The cunning of the clásica, Madrid, Nerea, 1990, there are many reflections hero has its equivalent in the cunning of the wife. of this sort on the female Her iconography in works of art was established characters in Homer. very early and the loom is the element that 37 was a magician or allows us to identify her at once. John William enchantress who lived on the island of Aeaea. She had Waterhouse represents her at work on her magical powers and could turn weaving and besieged by her suitors. The men into animals. HOMER, archetype of the perfect wife and mother is fully Odyssey, X. joined to the fine art of weaving. 38 was a and queen of the island of . But the discreet and prudent Penelope, She held Odysseus captive faithful wife of Odysseus, is not the only woman there for seven , offering to appear at the loom in Homer’s verses, although him . Ibid., X. 39 was the wife of the plastic arts have not left as much evidence of Alcinous and mother of the others. In The Odyssey, characters as enigmatic Nausicaa. They reigned over as the enchantress Circe37 and the nymph Calypso38 the island of the Phaeacians, engage in weaving as well. Arete39, Queen of the Ibid., VI. Ulysses, Mercury and Circe, 40 Helen, who was the wife Phaeacians, also spends her days weaving rich fabrics. Giovanni Stradano, 1572. 40 of Menelaus, King of , Helen , when she is taken back to the House of Palazzo Vecchio. See detail. was kidnapped by the Trojan Menelaus, appears with a wicker basket of wool fleece prince Paris. Her kidnapping and a spindle during the visit made by Telemachus41. set in motion the , which is recounted in The . In The Iliad, Helen is weaving a large purple cloth When the war ended, Helen depicting the Achaeans and Trojans42. Andromache is counselled by her was returned to the House of husband to return to her spindle and orders the slaves to join in the Menelaus. In The Odyssey, she 43 is found back in Sparta. work as well . Spinning and weaving are an intrinsic part of what is regarded 41 Telemachus, son of as the female realm. Odysseus, had gone to the court of Menelaus for news of 42 MERHO , The Iliad, III, 125ff. his father, Ibid., IV. 43 Ibid., VI, 490ff.

46 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN 38 open source language version > català

Hercules and Omphale, Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1537. Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.

Heroes Disguised as Women 44 In the artistic iconography, Precisely because of the inextricable association between women and the loom, Queen Omphale is men have picked up thread or spinning wheel when they need to disguise represented with a lion’s skin and club, typical attributes themselves among women. This is the case of (also known as Hercules) of Hercules, as if she has during his stay at the court of Queen Omphale44, where the great hero of twelve usurped his powers while the labours spends three years dressed in women’s clothes and is represented hero, by contrast, appears wearing women’s clothes and weaving linen at the monarch’s feet. The scene is also reflected in works by the 45 46 weaving linen. One of the artists Lucas Cranach and Charles Gleyre . sources is DIODORUS OF One might further ask whether engaged in weaving when his SICILY, IV, 31. mother concealed him at the court of Lycomedes in Sciros47 so that he would 45 The painting Hercules at the Court of Omphale (1537) go unnoticed and not be carried off to the Trojan War. It is likely that he did. In (“Hercules am Hofe der this case, however, art has left no trace. Omphale”) has one version in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and another in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick, Germany. 46 Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (1806-1874) was a painter of Swiss birth living in France. 47 IMALGR , Op. cit.

Hercules and Omphale, Charles Gleyre, 1862.

47 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN 38 open source language version > català

Conclusions

48 See FERNÁNDEZ, Olaya, Spinning wool into yarn, weaving, managing servants and receiving visitors El Hilo de la Vida: Diosas were all on the list of basic household tasks for women in Ancient Greece. The tejedoras en la mitologia griega. Paper from the tasks reflected the social role of women. Generally, their lives unfolded within National University of the home, which was known as the oikos and included not only the house itself, Distance Education (UNED) but also the entire estate, which would vary in size according to social status. in Spain. As a result, many female characters used textile work for expression, coping, 49 Carl Gustav Jung, Joseph Campbell, Marie-Louise von protection, worship and more. It was their territory and a host of studies have 48 Franz, Christine Downing, examined the subject from a feminist perspective . Anne Baring, Jules Cashford, A more psychological approach to mythology, which is supported by many Marion Woodman and Jean authors49, sees the act of weaving as a symbol for making the great tapestry of Houston, to name but a few. There are many others. life. In this sense, the weave of fibres, both the warp and the woof, is fashioned 50 In Jungian psychology, out of life’s great double dance: the male and the female (e.g., Penelope/ this is the anima in the case Odysseus, Andromache/Hector and Hector/Omphale), the human and the of men and the animus in the divine (Athena/Arachne), the rational and the irrational (Minyades/Dionysus), case of women. and so on and so forth. In addition, female figures appearing as silent weavers have been interpreted as corresponding to a person’s anima50. While the hero’s ego may be focused on frenetic action at the moment, he must return and merge again with his inner anima at some point. Both elements are fundamental to the story. Viewed under this prism, Penelope is Odysseus’ anima and Ariadne is Theseus’ anima (while Beatrice is Dante’s and Dulcinea is Don Quixote’s). In short, unravelling mythology is a task that has no end. We can always return to it from a multitude of disciplines.

48 UNRAVELLING MYTHOLOGY: MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES WHO SPIN