Minerva and Arachne quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre best describes "Minerva and Arachne"?

   • Correct answer: Classical myth
   • Heroic legend
   • Tall tale
   • Moral fable

   A classical myth is a sacred story of the Greek and Roman gods that often explains how something in nature came to be. Here the goddess Minerva turns Arachne into the first spider.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why did the gods award the city of Athens to Minerva instead of Neptune?

   • She defeated Neptune in battle during the reign of Cecrops
   • Jupiter, her father, overruled the other gods in her favor
   • Correct answer: Her olive was judged more useful to mortals than his horse
   • Neptune had already given up his own claim to the city

   The gods decreed the city would go to whoever produced the gift most useful to mortals. Neptune gave the horse and Minerva the olive, and the gods judged the olive more useful, so the city was named Athens after her.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Watching Arachne work, people thought one thing about her skill. What could Arachne not bear to hear?

   • That an old woman had taught her to spin
   • Correct answer: That Minerva herself must have taught her
   • That the nymphs wove better than she did
   • That her work was lovely only when finished

   Onlookers said Minerva herself must have taught her, but Arachne denied it and could not bear to be thought a pupil even of a goddess. Her work was beautiful in the doing as well as when done, and the nymphs came to admire it, not to compete.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What disguise does Minerva take to warn Arachne?

   • A wood nymph
   • A shepherd girl
   • A white swan
   • Correct answer: An old woman

   Minerva assumed the form of an old woman and gave Arachne some friendly advice before dropping her disguise. The swan is Jupiter's disguise in one of Arachne's woven scenes.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does the disguised Minerva advise Arachne to do?

   • Challenge the nymphs instead, since they love her work
   • Correct answer: Ask the goddess's forgiveness, since she is merciful
   • Weave the glory of the gods so the goddess is pleased
   • Flee the city before the goddess can punish her

   The old woman says to challenge fellow-mortals but not a goddess, and to ask the goddess's forgiveness, since she is merciful and may pardon her. Arachne angrily tells her to keep her counsel for her daughters or handmaids.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Arachne react when Minerva drops her disguise?

   • She flees from her loom in sudden terror
   • She bows low in homage beside the nymphs
   • She begs forgiveness, but is refused
   • Correct answer: She blushes and pales but holds to the contest

   The nymphs bent low and the bystanders paid reverence, but Arachne alone was unterrified. She blushed and then grew pale, yet she stood to her resolve and rushed on her fate.

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7. 7

   Question 7. In the line "with a foolish conceit of her own skill rushed on her fate", what does conceit mean?

   • A nervous doubt about her own ability
   • A secret plan to trick her opponent
   • Correct answer: An overly high opinion of herself
   • A clever, far-fetched figure of speech

   Here conceit means vanity: Arachne thinks too highly of her own skill. In poetry the word can also mean an elaborate comparison, but that sense does not fit a weaver rushing to challenge a goddess.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What did Minerva weave in the four corners of her web, and why?

   • Correct answer: Mortals punished for daring the gods, to warn Arachne
   • The twelve gods at a feast, to show the heavens' glory
   • Neptune's horse and her olive, to recall her win at Athens
   • Her birth from Jupiter's brain, to show Arachne her power

   The corners showed the displeasure of the gods at presumptuous mortals who had dared to contend with them, meant as warnings to her rival to give up before it was too late. The contest with Neptune filled the central circle.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What did Arachne choose to show on her web?

   • The gods' kindness to mortals who honored them with gifts
   • Her own future victory over the goddess Minerva
   • The founding of Athens and the gift of the olive tree
   • Correct answer: The gods' failings and errors, such as Jupiter's tricks

   Arachne filled her web with subjects chosen to exhibit the failings and errors of the gods: Jupiter disguised as a swan with Leda, as a golden shower with Danae, and as a bull carrying off Europa.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Bulfinch compares the blended colors of wool to a rainbow. What does this simile show?

    • Correct answer: The colors blend so smoothly that no one sees where they meet
    • The contest will end in a storm sent by the angry goddess
    • Arachne's dyes will fade quickly, like a rainbow after rain
    • Their colors outshine anything that can be found in nature

    The wool is shaded off so adroitly that the joining deceives the eye, like a rainbow where the colors meet and seem as one, yet a little way off are wholly different. The simile praises the weavers' blending, not brightness or a coming storm.

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11. 11

    Question 11. In the line "shaded off into one another so adroitly that the joining deceives the eye", what does adroitly mean?

    • In a clumsy way
    • With great haste
    • Correct answer: With great skill
    • In bright colors

    Adroitly means skillfully or cleverly. The colors are blended with such skill that a viewer cannot see where one ends and the next begins. Clumsily is its opposite.

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12. 12

    Question 12. How does Minerva feel when she sees Arachne's finished web?

    • She finds a flaw in it and scorns its maker's skill
    • Correct answer: She admires it but is indignant at the insult
    • She judges it the better web and quits the contest
    • She is pleased that Arachne has honored Jupiter

    Minerva could not forbear to admire, yet felt indignant at the insult. The web was wonderfully well done; its subjects, which mocked the gods, are what anger her.

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13. 13

    Question 13. In the line "wonderfully well done, but strongly marking her presumption and impiety", what does impiety mean?

    • Carelessness in one's work
    • A fear of being punished
    • Correct answer: Lack of respect for the gods
    • Too much devotion to religion

    Impiety is a lack of reverence for the gods or for sacred things. Arachne's web shows the gods' failings, so it marks her impiety. Piety, deep religious devotion, is the opposite.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Why does Minerva tell Arachne to continue to hang, she and her descendants, to all future times?

    • Because Arachne had asked to be spared as a small animal
    • Correct answer: So the memory of this lesson will be kept alive for all time
    • So Arachne can never weave a finer web than the goddess
    • Because the other gods demanded that Arachne be punished

    Minerva says, "that you may preserve the memory of this lesson, continue to hang". Arachne becomes a spider, often hanging by her own thread in the same attitude as when Minerva touched her.

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15. 15

    Question 15. How does Spenser's version of the story, quoted by Bulfinch, change the ending?

    • Correct answer: Arachne admits defeat, and her own shame transforms her
    • Arachne wins, and Minerva turns her rival into a butterfly
    • Minerva forgives Arachne and lets her keep her human form
    • Jupiter halts the contest before either web can be judged

    Stunned by Minerva's butterfly, Spenser's Arachne yields the victory by her silence and burns inwardly. Bulfinch notes that the metamorphosis is caused by Arachne's own mortification and vexation, and not by any direct act of the goddess.

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16. 16

    Question 16. Spiders and their kin take their scientific name from Arachne. What is it?

    • Crustaceans
    • Myriapods
    • Minervans
    • Correct answer: Arachnids

    Arachnids, the class that includes spiders, are named for Arachne, whom Minerva turns into a spider at the end of the myth. In Greek, arachne means spider.

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17. 17

    Question 17. Which theme does the myth most clearly teach?

    • Correct answer: Pride that defies the gods brings a mortal to ruin
    • The gods reward mortals who are frank about their faults
    • Beauty in art matters more than the subject it shows
    • Hard work and practice make anyone a great artist

    Arachne rushes on her fate with a foolish conceit of her own skill, refusing the old woman's warning, and is ruined. Garrick sums it up: the daring mortal fell, the hapless victim of her pride. This excessive pride against the gods is called hubris.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Which of these happen in the story?

    • In the contest for Athens, Neptune gives a horse and Minerva an olive.

      Happened

      Neptune gave the horse; Minerva produced the olive, which the gods judged more useful.

    • The nymphs leave their groves and fountains to watch Arachne at work.

      Happened

      Arachne's skill is such that the nymphs themselves leave their groves and fountains to gaze on her work.

    • Arachne admits that Minerva taught her everything about weaving.

      Didn't happen

      Arachne denied it and could not bear to be thought a pupil even of a goddess.

    • Arachne says she will pay the penalty if she is beaten in a contest.

      Happened

      Daring Minerva to try her skill, she adds, "if beaten I will pay the penalty."

    • Arachne bows low in homage when the goddess drops her disguise.

      Didn't happen

      The nymphs bent low and the bystanders paid reverence, but Arachne alone was unterrified.

    • Minerva weaves Jupiter, disguised as a swan, visiting Leda.

      Didn't happen

      Leda and the swan is one of Arachne's scenes. Minerva wove her contest with Neptune and the punished mortals.

    • Arachne weaves Europa carried across the sea by Jupiter as a bull.

      Happened

      Arachne depicts Europa deceived by Jupiter as a bull, who swims with her to Crete.

    • Neptune judges the weaving contest and names Minerva the winner.

      Didn't happen

      No judge appears. Minerva admires Arachne's web, is indignant at its insult, and tears it apart.

    • Minerva finds a flaw in Arachne's web and points it out to her.

      Didn't happen

      Minerva could not forbear to admire the web. It is the insult in its subjects that angers her.

    • Minerva touches Arachne's forehead and makes her feel guilt and shame.

      Happened

      After tearing the web, Minerva touched Arachne's forehead and made her feel her guilt and shame.

    • Minerva sprinkles Arachne with the juices of aconite.

      Happened

      She sprinkles her with aconite, and Arachne's hair, nose and ears fall away as she shrinks into a spider.

    • Jupiter turns Arachne into a spider at Minerva's request.

      Didn't happen

      Minerva herself transforms Arachne; Jupiter plays no part in the ending.

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