Craft in History--Origin Stories

 click here take a closer look at these woven items

The importance of craft to the ancient Greeks can be seen in the myth of Athena and Arachne.  It not only shows the importance of weaving to the ancient Athenians, but also exposes a number of lessons that I think are important to remember about crafting itself.

Arachne was an Athenian of the lower class.  She would have been unimportant and ignored by her neighbors if not for her great skill of weaving.  People came from far and wide to see her works.  Even the nymphs would come to see her works.

Given the beauty of her works and their great renowned, Arachne considered herself the best weaver of all.  She even put her skill above that of Athena, goddess of crafts, and the namesake of the city.  Arachne's refusal to acknowledge Athena's divine part in her skillfulness.

Of course, the arrogance of Arachne made Athena livid.  So, she came down from Mt. Olympus to confront the girl.  Athena disguised herself as an old woman in order to give Arachne one last chance for modesty.  Athena, in her disguise, reminded Arachne that it is important to honor the gods, and recognize their superiority.  Then, she encourages Arachne to ask the gods for forgiveness.

Instead of heeding the old woman's advice, Arachne brags that Athena is simply too fearful of her superior skill to accept her challenge.  This is too much for Athena, who sheds her disguise, showing her true self in all of its shining glory.

Everyone else is mightily impressed, according to Ovid, but Arachne shrugs it off.  The two weavers begin their contest.  Athena, weaves an image of herself defeating Poseidon, to claim Athens.  Arachne, on the other hand, shows the transgressions of the gods in her tapestry.  She weaves images of the many infidelities of the male gods.

The beauty of the tapestry, and its offending content are simply too much for Athena to bear.  In rage she strikes Arachne down, splitting open her head.  Arachne, to preempt Athena hangs herself from the roof beams.

Athena, takes pity on the girl, and decides to save her (kind of).  Athena pours a juice on Arachne's head that makes her hair fall out, her face smooths, she grows more limbs, and shrinks.  Athena curses her and her ancestors to live as spiders, weaving their whole life long.
 
This story immediately shows the importance of skilled craftsmen to the ancient Athenians.  Along with trade, agriculture, and urbanism, one of the defining characteristics of a civilization is division of labor.  Along with other markers, this is evident in the skills of craftsmen.  The story of Arachne shows the glory of Athenian culture, and marks it as highly civilized.

Arachne, in her arrogance, refused to acknowledge ANY of her craft's ancestry.  She seemed to forget that her skill had not originated in her alone, but instead had much more ancient origins.  In the story the origins were easily traced back to Athena, but really crafts have been developed and perfected over the years by many diligent hands.

This story just reminds me of all of the accomplished weavers, knitters, seamstresses, cooks... who came before us with creativity, despite a lack of acknowledgment.  No matter what you do, you owe your craft to those people!

http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.6.sixth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization

craft in history--subversive embroidery

Subversive craft is all the rage right now. In order to keep a safe distance from our grandparent's generation new trendy crafters use irony to differentiate themselves. I would argue that to a large degree this is because we craft in a different context and for different reasons. Today's crafters have a diy attitude not out of necessity but instead to claim something we feel has been lost and also to provide an alternative to what the mainstream commercial world has to offer.

 not necessarily "subversive," but these are certainly not your grandmother's embroideries!

Click here to take a closer look

Although it may not look as subversive as the embroidery of today, the embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots in the 16th was far more subversive than any embroidery that I have seen.  Mary Stuart was queen of the Scots while her cousin, the infamous Elizabeth the great was queen of the English.  As in all the stories of royalty there were a number of power grabs going on between the two monarchs.  The "stuff you missed in history class" podcast mentioned that had Mary and Elizabeth not both been women they would have been married to one another in order to consolidate power, and prevent the continuous grabs for power.  The subversive embroidery comes into play when Mary's husband, an Englishman named Lord Darnley mysteriously dies in an explosion.  Mary is suspected of being involved in the assassination, and after marrying one of the murderers (under duress) looks even more guilty to the Scottish people.  The couple is imprisoned in Scotland.  Mary escapes to England, where she hopes her cousin Elizabeth with protect her.  Elizabeth instead imprisons her for her supposed crime.  Elizabeth fears Mary's claims to the English throne.  Elizabeth is the offspring of Henry VII's second marriage which many, especially Catholics claim to be illegitimate.

During her time in prison Mary had little to do but work on her embroidery.  The pieces look to be innocent enough often featuring animals.  However, there is said to be hidden symbolism in the embroideries, representing the life and times of Mary.  The symbolic embroidery that I heard about was was the one named "A Catte," but there are a number of other interesting pieces detailed here.

photo from http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm

I love how in this age you could pretty much spell things however you wanted.  I think it gives writing a little personality (darn you Webster).  Mary's embroidered tapestry shoes a cat playing with a mouse.  The ginger colored cat is meant to represent Elizabeth, who still, as in her day is recognized for her ginger colored hair, while poor trapped Mary is meant to be represented by the mouse.  She is implying that Elizabeth is simply playing with her by allowing her to stay alive.

What strikes me about this piece of embroidery is that it was done at the time.  It was not done after the fact to be an historical reference, instead Mary was putting her feelings down on cloth.  Whether Mary was conveying what she really felt or trying to get a message to the outside world, Mary's embroidery certainly made a statement.

After a number of plots to get Mary on the throne were uncovered, Mary was sentenced for treason.  Elizabeth signed an edict for Mary's death, and she was executed in 1587.

Here's where I got my info.  Check them out for more on these royals:

http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/marystuart.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots
http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm
http://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/mary-queen-of-scots.htm