Congratulations to Isabella (Year 9) who was awarded 1st
place in her category at this year’s Classical Association Mythology Competition.
Her original composition 'The Spinner of Webs', inspired by the myth of Arachne, beat a high level of competition from across the country and beyond.
The judges described her work as ‘an original and creative retelling with sophisticated vocabulary and an appealingly allusive style.’ The competition runs with a new myth every year. If pupils are interested, they should speak to their Classics teacher to find out about this and more opportunities to engage with the Ancient World. If you're looking for inspiration, you can read Isabella's piece below:
A fine dusting of shattered glass covered the room I now stood before. Evidently someone – something – had got here before me. I carefully navigated my way through the sharp, shimmering sea of glass and located what I came for. I looked upon it with a bittersweet gaze. Gaze – for I could not smile. I could see the image that I had come to hate, after so many centuries of searching and finding, finding then failing. I smoothly scuttled up the silken surface of this Holy Grail – the amphora – and plunged inside.
Once I took in the rich terracotta tones of the amphora, I began to feel the magic enclosed within this one amphora. This amphora, so loved and awed and treasured and worn. I closed my eyes and heard - felt - the spirits trapped within the warm clay walls of the amphora singing songs of gods and mortals, of the heroic and the punished. This song instilled in me such vibrancy of thought and emotion, the likes of which I hadn’t felt since I could smile and cry. I opened my eyes, and then at last I could open my soul. I could feel the pure power of the myths and memories now coursing through my veins. I could almost feel myself transforming—
The ethereal voices ceased. Was the process complete? Had I transformed? I looked down at my body. Still eight legs. Something was off. Why hadn’t it worked? I burst out of the amphora and returned home. There were times for breaking into museums and trying to reclaim my soul, and times for replanning when things go appallingly wrong.
Once back at my web, I began to think about what could have gone wrong this time. I thought about who I was – Arachne – and what I was now – an immortal spider. I needed to return to my previous incarnation. But to do it without a body? Impossible. So find the memories – always the memories . The way I could get to my soul was sucking it from objects associated with me, or even better yet, objects that belonged to me. The latter was obviously out of the question, since my kingdom had been passed between different empires for eternity. So I had to break into museums. Look for the weaver - always the weaver. Then claim what was mine.