Isis's Clique: Divine Threads

Isis's Clique: Divine Threads

Knitting, crocheting, sewing, weaving—about the only thing these goddesses don't do is counted cross-stitch. Isis invented weaving and taught it to the women of Egypt. All these goddesses share her arts and crafts skills.

Athena (Minerva)

Despite her lack of girly style, Athena's mean with a spindle. We're not sure if she's that good, or if she's just managed to thwart any mortal that tries to be better than she is. The first Greek to boast about being better than Athena at weaving, Arachne, got turned into a spider as revenge.

Spider Woman

No, this isn't Peter Parker's aunt. The Diné people (also called the Navajo) of the Southwestern United States tell us that Spider Woman is such a good weaver that she was given the job of weaving the form of the universe we live in. Talk about a big craft project.

Frau Holle

This goddess of ancient Germany is very skilled at turning flax plants into linen and spinning and weaving cloth. Her house is in the sky, and when she shakes out her feather pillows, it's said that they fall in the form of snowflakes on the wintry earth. If you should ever end up in her house, make sure you do your chores—she rewards busy workers with great riches and punishes lazy boys and girls by sending them home covered in tar.