Arachne and Athena: The story of the weaving competition

In ancient Greece, Arachne, the daughter of a famous Tyrian purple dyer was adept in the art of weaving.  Eventually, she began to consider herself a greater weaver than the goddess Athena herself and challenged the goddess to a weaving contest to prove her skill.  Athena agreed to this and wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon.   Arachne wove a tapestry featuring twenty-one episodes of infidelity amongst the Gods of Olympus.   Athena was angered by this and although the goddess conceded that Arachne's weaving was flawless, she was infuriated by the mortal's pride.  In a moment of anger, Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom and cursed Arachne to live her life with extreme guilt.  Out of sadness, Arachne hanged herself soon after.  Athena took pity on Arachne and brought her back to life as a spider and made sure that she kept all of her weaving skills.
 

Ref: Cultural depictions of spiders.  Wikipedia