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 nameofArachne, 
(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. 
