Spinning a Yarn: Weaving in Greek Mythology
Penelope unravels her weaving each night, undoing by moonlight what she made by lamplight, buying herself years against a horde of suitors. It's one of the great textile images in Western storytelling, and now, it returns to the screen in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Selvedge readers will be watching for how her loom is handled: whether it becomes wallpaper for the drama, or whether the mechanics of thread, tension and pattern get their due.
Weaving runs through Greek mythology far beyond Penelope. Arachne's fatal contest with Athena, the Fates spinning and cutting the thread of life, cloth as message, disguise, trap and inheritance. To mark the film's release, we're revisiting a piece by Ismini Samanidou from Issue 125, Mediterranean, exploring how these stories encode ideas about craft, patience, power and who gets to tell the story. Read on for the myths behind the myth...
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Further Information:
Selvedge Issue 125, Mediterranean
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Image Credits:
Lead: Dora Wheeler, Penelope Unraveling Her Work at Night, 1986. Silk embroidered with silk thread, 114 x 173 cm.
All further images as credited through the article.