"Everything is part warp and part weft."

Live from Mount Olympus

Onassis Foundation

Kids & Family, Stories For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, is also the goddess of weaving – remember how she taught Pandora? They stood together at a huge loom made from tree branches, with clay weights on the bottom of each warp thread. Those ancient looms are rare these days – but we found one in an apartment in upper Manhattan, where scholar Beth Clancy weaves both cloth and stories. Join us as we visit Beth for this mythlet on the power of weaving in the mythical past – and in our own time!

Big thanks to Beth Clancy for letting us record her, to David Goren for his field recordings of this ancient loom, and to Claire Walker-Wells and Yonatan Rekem for writing and production and to John Melillo for the great mix. And a shout-out to Gizelle Winter for her research and for getting the workmen outside of Beth’s window to stop jackhammering for an hour so we could record her!

By the way, we're hard at work putting the finishing touches on the new season of Live from Mount Olympus -- stay tuned! Do you have a favorite myth you'd like us to explore? Let us know! It could become part of a future season of Live from Mount Olympus. Email us at [email protected]. Can't wait to hear from you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	We are hard at work putting the finishing touches on a new season of live from Mount Olympus coming soon.
0:06.8	Meanwhile, here's a new mythlet for you.
0:10.8	Remember the mudmen that Zeus created?
0:14.6	I've been wondering, what did they wear?
0:18.4	Maybe they ran around naked?
0:20.5	I mean, who has time to make clothing when you're trying to build shelter from rocks?
0:26.9	Rocks won't keep them warm, Zeus.
0:29.4	How will they survive?
0:31.1	They figured this much out, I'm sure they'll figure that out too.
0:34.4	Maybe they'll kill some sheep and use the wool to keep warm.
0:37.0	Zeus did have a good idea there. Perhaps the mud men wrapped themselves in animal skins,
0:42.3	but probably not much more.
0:45.3	And then Athena taught Pandora how to weave. And the whole world changed.
0:53.3	Weaving is a noble skill.
0:55.0	It will serve you well on earth.
0:57.0	What are those threads, the ones that go up and down?
1:01.0	That's called the warp.
1:03.0	It's where all weaving begins.
1:05.0	And the wooden tool in your hand?
1:07.0	The shuttle, which carries the weft through the warp, like this.
1:12.8	Warp and Weft.
1:14.3	May I try?
	...

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