Athēne wrought on her web the scene of her contest with Posidon. Twelve of the heavenly powers were represented, Zeus with august gravity sitting in the midst. Posidon, the ruler of the sea, held his trident, and appeared to have just smitten the earth, from which a horse had leaped forth. The bright-eyed goddess depicted herself with helmeted head, her ægis covering her breast, as when she had created the olive tree, with its berries and its dark green leaves. But the most astonishing example of her skill appeared in a butterfly, so beautiful that only a poet can describe it properly. Listen to the charming description of the poet Spenser:
Amongst these leaves she made a Butterfly,
With excellent device and wondrous slight;
Fluttering among the olives wantonly,
That seemed to live, so like it was in sight;
The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie,
The silken down with which his back is dight;
His broad outstretchèd horns, his hairy thighs,
His glorious colors, and his glistening eyes.
Which when Arachne saw, as overlaid