THE FIGURE OF LUCRETIA COMPARED TO THE HOMERIC PENELOPE

At the end of the first book of his Histories, Livy introduces the figure of Lucretia, whose rape, will cause the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome (I.57).Lucretia's weaving work is similar to the work that Penelope was doing waiting for the return of her husband Ulyxes from Troy.In the ancient world the spinning wheel did not exist because it was an invention of the 14th century and all the spinning was done with the spindle. In the realm of the Greek Gods, the Moirae were in charge of spinning the wheel to show the length of the human life and of cutting the thread when somebody was destined to die.In ancient Rome, much later than Lucretia's period, under the reign of Domitian, reliefs of the Forum Transitorium, that became later called the Forum of Nerva, show the Goddess Athena- Minerva weaving. In this specific case, for the Romans of the empire, Athena symbolized not only the aspect of war, but also the patient work of the Roman matrons who were busy weaving for their families.Therefore, because Athena was also the goddess of the crafts, the myth of Aracne is connected to her. Aracne ( which in Greek means "Spider") was a mortal weaver who boasted that her weaving skills were better than Athena.The offended goddess set up a contest and the goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry of Aracne that she destroyed the tapestry and the loom and slashed the girl's face. After this strike, Athen transformed Aracne into a spider. The myth is narrated in Ovid Metamorphoses (VI 5-54).