How The Word "Arachnids" Came to Be?

We commonly know spiders to be spiders and not on their real nomenclature arachnids probably because of the reason that it is appropriate to name them like that since the name has generic applications to all species that belong to it. There are other arachnids of course. The harvestman is often regarded as spider; however it is not, but still belongs to the arachnid group. Scorpions also belong to the species of arachnids but they are not spiders in any way. They belong to a completely different species and must not be regarded as spider. Having said that, it is therefore understood why you can't call spiders as arachnids since there are many different species that belong to them. It is just appropriate to call them as "spiders" since that is how they are being called since time immemorial. Calling them in any other way is either inappropriate or would make people awkwardly uncomfortable since they are not used to it. Spiders should remain to be called spiders and that's how it should be. But let's set that aside first and let's focus on the main content of this article which is how the name arachnid came to be.

There are many myths and theories as to how the name arachnids came to be. Actually, there are so many of them that scientists and word origin specialists could no longer trace the real foundations of the name. The name arachnid is just understood the way they are defined now by dictionaries and how they are commonly defined by scientists at present. But there's one myth that stands out among them all. This one is the myth that originated from Greece and which happens to be the most accepted theory of them all so far by many contemporary scientists.

The name arachnid isn't actually arachnid at first, but the word origin was Arachne and this was the name of a person. The story of Arachne isn't actually a happy story, but a rather tragic one. One's tragic disposition could only be compared to how spiders would tragically look like normally. When you learn this Greek myth, you will then be fully be able to understand the extent of how spiders are named the way they are and all the other species that belong to the same genera. You would fully comprehend why arachnids would normally look like that.

You have to understand as well though that the idea of myths is fictional and are most likely non-existent. They exist to give a literary interpretation of things and to explain the things that were not explained before because of the lack of empiricism before as well as the incapacities of the technology and science before to find out the real truth in the things that one would see.

The Myth of Arachne

The story of Arachne traces from a long time before, when Gods and Goddesses still reside at Mt. Olympus - the believed place where gods and goddesses of the Greeks dwell. Arachne just happens to be a mere human being. A mere thread spinner who weaves tapestries and other works of clothe. However she was so pretty that a lot of women in her town envy her. At the height of the praises she gets for her beauty, it got into her head and she became conceited. She bragged so much about her beauty that she dared mock the goddesses in Olympus claiming that she's more beautiful than even the goddesses. Her claims have reached Mt. Olympus and have direly offended the goddesses, especially the goddess Venus. One day the goddess descended down from Mt. Olympus to pay the conceited human Arachne a visit in her tapestry shop. Venus disguised herself as a mere human being in order to conceal her presence from Arachne and to interact with ease and ultimately find out the truth on the woman's brags. Indeed the goddess Venus discovered the apparent unmatched beauty of the human Arachne and what caught the goddess's ire even more is that unravelling truth that the human Arachne was indeed a braggart, constantly bragging about her beauty and upon saying this in the presence of the true goddess of beauty, Venus casted a spell on Arachne and turned her into a creature of the dark. Arachne began to shrink in size so small that she could barely be seen in an immediate naked eye view. Then she suddenly started growing more limbs in her body; two limbs came out from under her arms and other two pairs of limbs in her lower torso, all in all constituting eight limbs. And then the threads she weaves to create tapestries became silk threads that come out from her behind. Venus intentionally did this so that instead of making beautiful tapestries for other people's embellishments she would make tapestries of silk threads for her own dwelling. Arachne became a spider and would forever lurk in the dark in concealment, hiding in plain sight to many people because of how hideous she has become.

Since then, the word Arachne became the word arachnid as we know it right now and it simply refers to any bug-like creatures that possesses eight limbs in total and lurks usually in dark places concealing its presence from humans. These creatures are usually hideous in appearance and would normally catch the fear of a lot of people once they are seen. Scientists have made it a point to base the generic name of these creatures to the myth of Arachne because of the strong semblance in characteristics being portrayed in the story. The words arachnids is perhaps just the evolution of the word as to how it is more conveniently pronounced to some people in the different places in the world and have eventually become the general calling for all creatures of the same sort.

However, even if the myth portrays arachnids as hideous, it's not always necessary that all arachnids in real life would also look the same way. In fact, in a scientific perspective, arachnids are fascinating and beautiful creatures.