Home

HOMER: Welcome back, traveler. Please, take a seat by the fire, we have more story to tell today. It may surprise you to find out that while you were away Arachne and Athena had started a tentative friendship. One that grows less and less tentative by the day. They are currently sitting in Athena’s kitchen, sharing cups of tea and talking about the latest news in Olympus.

ARACHNE: I can’t believe they’ve gotten a divorce. 

ATHENA: Who, Aphrodite and Ares? 

ARACHNE: Yeah. I mean, look at this! Every picture of them, they seem so happy together– they’ve always seemed so happy together.

ATHENA: They weren’t in love though. 

ARACHNE: What do you mean they weren’t in love?

ATHENA: Look–

HOMER: Athena pulled the paper from Arachne’s hands before going to grab his computer. Once he sat back down, Arachne saw that he had pulled up the pictures from Ares and Aphrodite’s wedding. He gestured from the screen to the paper.

ATHENA: This picture in the paper was taken recently, like days before the divorce announcement recently. That means they were already in the process of leaving each other, they had to be since these kinds of things take time. Look how happy they look in this picture.

ARACHNE: I know they look happy, Thena. That’s why I brought this up.

ATHENA: Now look at this picture from their wedding. Do you see the difference?

HOMER: The picture in question was taken during the reception. Ares and Aphrodite were standing side by side, an arm wrapped around each other and a smile on their faces. But eagle eyed viewers like Athena would notice that the smile didn’t quite reach their eyes. There was a tension there, one that betrayed secrets that you already know, traveler. And with Athena’s help, Arachne was starting to see them.

ARACHNE: They look… scared, almost. They’re smiling but there’s a pain in their eyes that I didn’t notice before. Is it like that in all of the pictures?

ATHENA: The only ones that aren’t like that are the pictures of them dancing together. Those are more candid and whatever they were talking about was enough to bring that light to both of their eyes, but you can tell they were never in love. They’re friends, they’ve always been friends, but they’re not in love. Which would explain the divorce.

ARACHNE: They sold the friends to lovers thing so well. If you hadn’t pointed it out–

ATHENA: I think that was the point. I haven’t spoken to Hera about it, but all of a sudden Aphrodite and Ares are married and Hera’s marriage is fine and happy? There has to be more to that story, I can feel it. Zeus, for all his faults, is strategic; I picked up my skills from my father, loathe as I am to admit it. This feels orchestrated, and he’s the only one I can think of who would do the orchestration. 

ARACHNE: The way your mind works is so fascinating.

ATHENA: …Thank you?

ARACHNE: Oh, wait, I mean it as a compliment I promise! It’s just… My brain doesn’t process things that way. I mean, I didn’t even notice that Ares and Aphrodite weren’t in love. To be able to spot that and then work your way through figuring out it was probably Zeus? You should see the way your eyes light up when you’re working on something like this, it’s like your brain won’t rest until you’ve seen the issue through to the end. It’s fascinating– amazing, even. And not what I expected from you.

ATHENA: You say that a lot, you know.

ARACHNE: Well it’s true! And it really does put into perspective how we met.

ATHENA: Arachne–

ARACHNE: You looked scared then too, you know. I can see it now, in my memory and I bet if I pulled up a picture I’d see it in your eyes then too. You didn’t have this confidence that you light up with every time you figure out a problem like this.

HOMER: Arachne pulled the computer away from Athena, searching for articles about their weaving contest. As she had guessed, Athena looked lost in the same way Ares and Aphrodite did in their wedding photos.

ARACHNE: Look at that. And that was before you turned me into a spider. You didn’t want to win, you needed it. You needed it to prove yourself and prove that you weren’t just this war strategist, you could do the ‘womanly’ things that mortals expected except you weren’t a woman. You were struggling. 

ATHENA: That doesn’t excuse it–

ARACHNE: I never said that it did. Even if I’ve forgiven you, it still wasn’t an excusable action. But it does explain a lot, doesn’t it? 

ATHENA: (lightly teasing) You’re not so bad at connecting the dots after all, are you? (pause, then more somber) Yeah, you’ve pretty much nailed it on the head with that. I wanted to prove myself in this field that is usually woman-centric as if it could make me believe that I was meant to be that. 

ARACHNE: Which explains the anger. And embarrassment. 

ATHENA: And the jealousy.

ARACHNE: Jealousy?

ATHENA: You were a better weaver than me. In my mind, that made you a better woman than me. And since that’s what I was trying so hard to be… Yeah, I got jealous. I got jealous that it could be so effortless to be this thing that I was trying so hard to be and I still failed.

ARACHNE: The idea that I’m a better woman because I’m a better weaver is wild.

ATHENA: I know, I know–

ARACHNE: And you are a good weaver, Athena. That doesn’t make you any less of a man, though. Contrary to some people’s beliefs, we’re allowed to do things outside of gender norms. 

ATHENA: Well I know that now!

ARACHNE: (laughing) I know you do. (pause) So are you still jealous?

ATHENA: (teasing) I mean… 

ARACHNE: (faux annoyance) Wow, really just throwing away the nice moment I’ve created, huh?

(BOTH LAUGH)

ATHENA: I’m really glad that we’ve gotten to this point. Especially given where we started off I just… I’m glad that we get to be friends now, you know? (pause) That is, if you wanna be friends, of course, I’m not– I know– I’d like to be friends! If that’s okay with you, I mean, it feels like that’s where we were heading but–

ARACHNE: (giggling, reassuring) Relax, Athena. We’re friends. (pause) I’m really glad that we get to be friends now too. I didn’t expect it, but I’m happy we got here.

HOMER: We shall part here today, traveler. There are things you will learn with Calliope which will tell you a bit of where our story is headed. But in order to get to that ending, we have to touch on one more aspect of their beginning. When next we meet, you’ll know exactly what I mean by that. Until then, and as always, thank you for listening.