- “I am Arachne! Guardian of the Tapestry of Fate!”
- ―Arachne
Arachne is a minor character that appeared in the Hercules TV Series. She's a giant spider-like monster with a bored, sarcastic personality who pretends to be the guardian of the Tapestry of Fate. She attempts to defeat Hercules and Icarus after catching them in her domain, but she is defeated.
History[]
Hercules and the Tapestry of Fate[]
Arachne first appears when Icarus was entering the area she dwelled in, announcing herself to who she thought was no one. She then made a sarcastic remark about her situation and left.
She appears again after Hercules and Icarus re-enter her cave, Icarus having forgotten that she was here. She gets Hercules in her mouth, but he is able to escape. She then proceeds to chase after them, catching Icarus in her web. She then eats Icarus, causing his soul to go to the Underworld. But Hercules undid his death by reweaving the Tapestry.
Hercules leaves but returns later to try and find the Tapestry of Fate, which is what he was originally looking for. After arriving at where he thought it would be and finding nothing, Arachne appears and ties him in her web. After trying to take a bite out of him, he turns into his God-like form and her teeth break.
The two then have a conversation about the Tapestry of Fate, and she would go on to reveal that both the Tapestry and the Fates were located in the Underworld. Confused, Hercules reminds her that she said she was the Guardian of the Tapestry, to which she goes on to reveal that it was just a fantasy of hers. He asked if that meant that she was just a "spider-lady", to which she replied she was a "free-lance web designer". Soon after their conversation, Hercules is teleported away because he was summoned by Philoctetes.
Disney Villains: Hades[]
Arachne recounts her story in Disney Villains: Hades #1
An alternate version of Arachne closer to the original myth appears in this comic book miniseries as a member of a team Hades assembles to retrieve the Golden Fleece in a bid to conquer Olympus. After being encouraged by her mother to challenge Athena to a weaving contest in an effort to promote the family weaving business and winning, she was transformed into a small human headed spider as punishment. Hades is able to recruit her by offering to restore her humanity. Arachne's role on the team would be to sneak past Colchise's defenses and web up the guards.
Gallery[]
_02.jpg "Arachne (Disney Villains Hades) 02.jpg (280 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Arachne in Greek mythology is very different from her depiction in the series. There are different versions of the myth, but they all involve Athena turning Arachne into a spider after Arachne revealed herself to be more talented than the goddess in the art of weaving. In the original legend, Arachne is turned into a normal tiny spider, and not a giant monster.
- It is because of these legends that zoologists named the class in which spiders belong to Arachnia, also known as Arachnids.
- When Hercules called her a "spider-lady," she tells him she prefers to be called a "free-lance web designer." This is in reference to an occupation referring to website creators that create websites for individual clients. Web is short for website, but it also refers to the substance that spiders weave.
- Several times, Arachne mentions "eating exotic people," which is a play-on-words for the common English phrase, "meeting exotic people" when talking about traveling.
