Paired Texts > The Transformation of Arachne into a Spider

by Ovid

8 CE

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

8th Grade Informational Text 1240L
Keeping Up with the Joneses
  • CommonLit Staff
  • 2014

The phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” describes the habit of trying to compete with your peers’ social status, wealth, and possessions. This article explores our systems of status and class, and why there exists this pressure of social competition.

Pair this text with Ovid’s Metamorphosis to discuss similarities between ancient religions, along with mythological symbolism and tropes.

11th Grade Magical Realism 1260L
The Metamorphosis
  • Franz Kafka
  • 1915

In the novella The Metamorphosis, a traveling salesman is transformed into an insect.

Pair Kafka’s text with Ovid’s Metamorphosis to and ask students to compare the theme of transformation in each text. Is Kafka's tale a story about a "lack of humility" like Ovid's myth?

9th Grade Myth 1180L
Arachne
  • Olivia E. Coolidge
  • 2001

In Olivia E. Coolidge’s adaption of the Greek myth “Arachne,” a talented weaver challenges the goddess Athena to a weaving contest.

Pair the more challenging text “The Transformation of Arachne into a Spider” with “Arachne” and ask students to compare these two myths about Arachne. How are the two versions of the myth similar and different? Do students think that the two texts share the same main theme, despite plot differences? Why or why not?