Arachne

Arachne was one of those rare heroines in Greek mythology who hadn't been sleeping with Zeus. She was a famous weaver, and kind of arrogant. She claimed to be better than Athena, the goddess of weaving. Athena turned up in disguise and challenged Arachne to a contest. Of course, it wouldn't be Greek mythology without some Jovian hanky-panky. Arachne chose for her tapestry's theme the various infidelities of Zeus. Athena, not thrilled (Zeus was her dad), revealed herself to Arachne and gave her a verbal slapdown. Arachne, full of remorse, hanged herself (on her own thread, presumably). Athena, relenting, brought her back to life as a spider.

Here's another beautiful spider's web, which Arachne herself could have woven. If you look closely at the dewdrops, you can see that they're lensing the gatepost, the road and the forest behind. This was shot in the same location as the spider photo I posted a couple of days ago. Nature is so amazingly beautiful, and its beauty is fractal: from the biggest to the smallest structures, at every scale its beauty and complexity is humbling.

I'm posting this as a birthday present, of sorts, for my friend. Now I'm all out of spider web photos, so I'd better go out and shoot some more.

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm macro, f/10, 1/400s, ISO 200. Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia, 23 August 2005. Placemark.