312 FLORAL EMBLEMS. 



Egyptians, to remind the people of the im- 

 portance of their linen manufactory, exposed 

 in their festivals an image, bearing in its 

 right hand the beam or instrument round 

 which the weavers rolled the warp of their 

 cloth. This image was called Minerva, from 

 Manevra, a weaver's loom. The name of 

 Athene, that is also given to this goddess, is 

 the very word denoting in Egypt the flaxen 

 thread used in their looms. Near this figure, 

 which was intended to warn the inhabitants 

 of the approach of the weaving or winter sea- 

 son, they placed another of an insect, whose 

 industry is supposed to have given rise to this 

 art, and to which they gave the nameof Arachne, 

 (from arach, to make linen cloth), to denote its 

 application. All these emblems, transported to 

 Greece, were by the genius of a people fond 

 of the marvellous, converted into real objects, 

 and indeed afforded ample room for the ima- 

 gination of the poets to invent the fable of the 

 transformation of Arachne into a spider. 



