So by day she'd weave at her great and growing web — by night, by the light of torches set beside her, she would unravel all she'd done. Three whole years she deceived us blind, seduced us with this scheme . . . … So long as she persists in tormenting us, quick to exploit the gifts Athena gave her — a skilled hand for elegant work, a fine mind 130 and subtle wiles too —we've never heard the like, not even in old stories sung of all Achaea's well-coifed queens who graced the years gone by: 133 Mycenae crowned with garlands, Tyro and Alcmena . . .

Unknown, Homer, Robert Fagles_ Knox,…, loc. 558