ABSTRACT
Arachne was, in the classical world, the mythological character who invented the thread and the loom. The iconographic representations that show the punishment that Goddess Athena brought upon it by transforming it into a spider, are an interesting testimonial of the textile material culture throughout history. It goes from the vertical loom of the ancient world to the femme fatale of the contemporary world, going through the horizontal loom and the embroidery frame of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This study aims at both analysing and identifying such iconographies to establish their utility for the studies of the European identity in the classical and medieval art.
