6 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XI 



THE WEAVER OF THE WEB. 

 By R. p. Dow, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



It is hardly conceivable that there is any human art older than 

 that of weaving, and for it Mistress Spider (the male spider toils 

 not, neither does he spin) has stood prototypical always. A word 

 to describe the process must be as old as the process itself and it 

 has never changed greatly. The word web is merely the past par- 

 ticiple of the verb, to weave. The spider is called in the Sanscrit 

 language urnavabi, a compound, wool-weaver. It is but a step 

 from vah to web. The corresponding Greek word is huphe. 

 The Greeks did not retain the idea of wool in the spider's name, 

 although their garments were for the most part woolen. It would 

 seem that in primitive India cotton had not replaced wool. 



The Greeks called the spider arachne. This is the spelling of 

 Homer. Hesiod and Pindar spelled it arachnes. In the works of 

 Aeschylus it became arachnos. In all later Greek it was again 

 arachne. The Latin makes a direct step to aranea. The Ger- 

 manic peoples took a different root, although keeping the original 

 one to indicate weaving. Spider is merely spindler. A spindle 

 is the stick on which the thread is wound, becoming slendered as 

 thread is drawn into warp or woof. The word thread has no 

 relation to the spider. It means that which is drawn and is akin 

 to the Latin traho. 



The word arachne did not originate in Greece. Nor did it at 

 first refer to the spider. There is an Indo-Germanic root, ark. 

 It seems to mean a completely covered receptacle to serve as a 

 hiding place either for a person or thing. As arcanum it still 

 retains this idea. As arcane it differs. It is the two parallel 

 bars of wood to which the weavers fastened their threads. Per- 

 haps it developed into a more elaborate loom, far more service- 

 able than hand weaving. If this be so, it would explain the 

 myth of Arachne, which, while recorded by late poets, is as old 

 as Greece, if not older. 



Arachne was a maiden, the most skilful weaver (or, more 

 probably embroiderer) in Greece. She dared to compete with 

 the Goddess Athene herself and spread upon her web remarkable 



