There are important archaeological finds around the world that show the spread of weaving art throughout all the great civilizations. The world’s oldest 3,000-year-old cloth was found in China. The finds date to 3,000 to 3,300 years using the radioactive carbon method in wool fibers from trousers and three more objects in one of the tombs. As for the pattern of the garment, the researchers found that the fabric had not been cut: The three sections of the trousers – the legs and the crotch area – were made into a loom in their final size and joined with seams.
In Egypt, the horizontal loom has been known since 3000 BC. Finds in the Egyptian pyramids show the ability of the Egyptians to make thin and solid fabrics, similar to today’s muslins. The Babylonians wove velvet fabrics and the ancient peoples of the Incas, Maya and Aztecs wore colorful lama wool. The oldest loom has been found in Siberia, while loom accessories.
The myth of the spider
An important reference is made to her in the myth of the Spider by Ovidios: The origin of the Spider was humble both on the part of the dying father of Edmon from Colophon and on the part of her mother, unknown to other unknown elements. Equally humble was the place of its origin, “a village with five people”, writes Ovidios (6.12).
But she was very good at weaving, so much so that the Nymphs from Mount Tmolos and the river Paktolos left their places of pleasure and went to Arachni to admire her handicrafts, both the final result and the process until she got there, mainly her fingers. She was so capable that people started saying that Athena was her teacher. Spider’s arrogant self-confidence led her to challenge Athena to a weaving struggle. The goddess gave her a chance to repent of her unwise words. She disguised herself as an old woman and appeared in front of the Spider. The advice he gave her to change her behavior provoked the rage of the young woman, who even went so far as to try to handcuff the old woman.
Athena was revealed, but the young woman insisted on her primacy. The competition has started. The two weavers used yarns based on the purple color and its very subtle shades. Athena portrayed the gods in all their grandeur, at a time when Athena and Poseidon were throwing for the name of their country Kekropas. And to calm the Spider even at the last moment, in the four corners of the fabric he depicted people severely punished by the gods for their arrogance.
The Blood and Rhodope whose gods petrified in the mountains, because, although mortal, they thought they could look like Zeus and Hera; the Pygmy queen who transformed Hera into a crane fighting his people · Antigone of Troy whom Hera for her reckless courage transformed into a bird, a stork; Kinyras who constantly mourns for his daughters. Athena completed her weaving by scattering olive branches on its edges as a decorative pattern.
For its part, the Spider represented on the fabric the adventures of the gods, erotic, mainly of Zeus, with Europe, Asteria, Leda, Antiope, Alcmene, Aegina, Mnemosyne, Danae, etc., and his transformations into a bull, goat, swan, satyr, golden rain, shepherd, snake, etc. But also of Poseidon who also changed forms, in order to unite with pure daughters; he became a bull, a ram, a river, a horse, a winged vulture, a dolphin , hawk, lion, shepherd etc. A total of twenty-two cases of divine disguises and forgery were depicted by the Spider, whose purpose was to seduce mortal women. The Spider, like Athena, decorated the fabric with flowers and ivy leaves.
The perfection of the woven but also the offensive choice of subjects for the gods, the artistic innovations of the girl with the violation of the classical principle of balance and the balanced depiction of the disorder caused by the denial of the divine identity by the gods themselves, without being deprived their power, they provoked the wrath of Athena who out of envy for the work of her mortal opponent destroyed the fabric and began to hit the girl with the shuttle of the loom. The young woman, in her agony, wanted to be hanged, the goddess felt sorry for her, gave her life but condemned her to always live so hung, herself and her descendants and with their bellies, not with their hands, to weave him their tissue (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 6. 133-145).
The faithful Penelope
Known to all of Homer is Queen Penelope, wife of Odysseus, who in the 20 years of Odysseus’ absence, Penelope, the only queen as she was, attracted many noble suitors who wished to marry her and be proclaimed lord of Ithaca. At first, Penelope ignored them, but when the suitors started pressuring her, she was forced to declare that she would choose one of them, when the shroud she was weaving for Laertes’ father-in-law was finished.
Penelope, who did not want to remarry, weaved the shroud during the day and removed it at night. This went on for many years, during which the suitors ate and looted Odysseus’ property, until a maid betrayed her. This shows us that weaving was an art that was known to all status of life, even queens!