The mythological Old Woman at the loom - what is the origin?

Question

Is it an archetypal image used in literature? What about Atwood's reference in her poem 'Red Shirt'?

Answer 1

The wiki has a pretty good run down.

And then there is this:

The novel embodies the convergence of polarized views in the ambiguous
image of blood, image of both life and death. The menstrual blood of a
handmaid is her sign of failure, and, ultimately, her death-warrant,
though it is also the sign of her continued fertility (95). The red
gowns of the handmaids are the color of the blood of life, but they are
also shrouds, and the repeated references to flowers (usually red) in
the novel join this image of fertility and hope to wounds and
suffering: Offred envisions her husband Luke held prisoner, "there's a
scar, no, a wound, it isn't yet healed, the color of tulips, near the
stem end, down the left side of his face where the flesh split
recently" (133). The ambiguity of the image of blood is one noted in
Atwood's poetry by Lorna Irvine: looking at the Atwood poem "Red Shirt"
that celebrates women, Irvine says "Finally, menstrual blood and the
blood of birth are symbols of union in this female world. In 'Red
Shirt,' the poet and her sister, heads almost joined as they bend over
their work, sew a red shirt for the poet's daughter. Taking from the
color red its associations with anger, sacrifice, and death, the
sisters purify it, offering it as a female birth-right to join all
women to each other" (105).22 The Handmaid's Tale, with its insistent
refusal to resolve ambiguities, retains the polar images of red and
blood that the poem "purifies."

Answer 2

I haven't read that poem although I have read other Atwood works. Just last evening there was a show on the Chinese channel on the Miaw people, an ethnic group in China and southeast Asia. There was a very ancient woman work a primative loom and it was said that in all families, women still weave their cloth. In Greek mythology, Athena is related to spinning and women's art, the Fates are weavers, and in the Odyssey, Odysseus's wife, Penelope says she will re-marry when she has finished weaving a certain piece of fine fabric. She weaves by day and unravels at night. Her suitors are figuring what's up when Odysseus returns and slaughters them.

Answer 3

Your getting into a area that the pin point is going to be harder then the average answers person can give you. I can only give you a start.

The lady at the loom is from three different religions: Celtic has the triple goddess maiden, mother, and crone, Norse have the Norns who spin fate at the base of the world tree and again the oldest is the crone spinning the wheel, and you have the Greek Fates whom spin and deside the length of mortal lives. It's where you get the saying "the thread of your life"

I am sure there are others but those are going to be the three most dominant in literature.

Answer 4

It's Penelope from Homer's Odyssey. Check it out, just Google it and you'll get this ref. Seriously this is the answer. None other will fit the archetypal imagery you need in literature query. Atwood has borrowed the Homer imagery. Check it out and see it the story fits what you're looking for, Penelope blew off her suitors -- whilst her hubby was away having a lot of fun -- by unravel ling her weaving secretly each night after having promised her erstwhile suitors that she would jump into bed with them when the weaving was completed. Curious?

Diantha

Answer 5

In Greek mythology, the Three Fates were depicted as spinning (but not weaving). Klotho began the thread, Lachesis stretched it out to its proper length, and Atropos cut it. In Greek, incidentally, these women were called the Moirai, or daughters of Moira, which is also the name of a character in Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale. Mythological images of women weaving are so widespread that it's hard to zero in one the relevant one, but you can try this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving_(mythology)