Hercules at the Spinning Wheel

Brilliant and astonishing – literature and art combined in a new way

According to Ovid, Arachne the weaver challenges Minerva, the goddess of the arts, to a weaving competition. She wins. As a punishment, she is turned into a spider. Edi Zollinger is a master of deciphering literature and art. He brilliantly decrypts pictures from Velázquez and Rubens to Goya and Picasso, thereby revealing a thread that always leads back to Arachne, the mother of painting and poetry. The fact that Arachne pulls her work out of her stomach like a mother pulls out her child becomes a problem for all her male descendants – and in the end even the hero Hercules has to take a seat at the spinning wheel!

An inspiring journey through time for all art and literature lovers and an investigative look at paintings and books you thought you knew.