One day, Aphrodite got curious and
started weaving on a loom. Eventually, Athena caught her at this. We all know
Athena is pretty possessive when it comes to weaving. She invented the craft
and turned Arachne into a spider because of it. So we can expect something will
happen here. We want it to be a Catfight of Epic Proportions™.
Nope.
Instead, Athena chucks it all. She
is ready to give up being the goddess of weaving over this. While this kind of
tantrum behavior shouldn’t really surprise us coming from a Greek god or
goddess, it’s unusual that she would give up weaving without a fight.
Unless . . . she knows she would
lose such a fight.
It’s not unheard of, especially
since Arachne pulled it off. But this means that Aphrodite’s skill at weaving
is not that of a beginner. In fact, we would probably have to conclude that it
doesn’t just rival Athena, it blows her away. Why else would she give up something
so precious to her without a fight?
Arachne proved that Athena takes
pride in her weaving, and isn’t afraid to fight for it, so for her to simply
pass the title over to Aphrodite without such a fight would mean she had to
recognize the level of skill Aphrodite possessed, and it was better than her
own.
We have no idea how long Aphrodite
honed her craft, if it was days, weeks, centuries, whatever. But the fact that
she attained a high enough proficiency that Athena will chuck it all is
impressive.
Aphrodite, though, not wanting the
title (responsibility?) apologized to Athena and renounced ever weaving again.
So ends Aphrodite’s stint as a working woman.