Chapter Text
Arachne was about to accept Athena's weaving competition, but then the Merge of Realities happened.
After learning… everything about what normally would have happened to her… Arachne went insane, and tried to avoid Athena at all costs. She tried to kill herself before the goddess could accept the contest, but to no avail.
Athena was mildly amused by Arachne's attempt at weaseling out of the competition, but she still forced her to honor the challenge, otherwise smiting would happen.
In order to make sure that the competition was “fair”, Athena assembled a jury of Athenians, and invited her father to essentially be a tie-breaker. As usual, Arachne wins the competition, but she doesn't stop at only one tapestry.
She makes 3: the one depicting the “lust of the gods” , and two depicting her own madness.
Despite the fact that Athena and Zeus don't like Arachne's blasphemous - and, for the other two, unsettling - tapestry, the Jury votes in favor of Arachne.
As Arachne tries to run away from the problem, not even caring about “winning” or “upstaging the gods” , Zeus disqualified her; not because she tried to run away, but because she used 3 tapestries in a competition where only one was allowed.
Athena wins, but Arachne couldn't care less. This annoys the goddess - who wanted to show the mortal their place, and now the mortal doesn't even care- , so the Goddess of Wisdom decides to just Claim Arachne as her “prize”.
Zeus is/was fine with this, no one in the Jury wanted to be on the bad side of the gods, and Arachne got transported away.