Arachne

The name arachnid is derived from greek mythology and was explained as follows.

Long ago in a village on the plane below Mount Olympus lived a beautiful maiden named Arachne. She devoted her days to weaving and embroidering, and such was her skill that even the nymphs from the woods crept out and gazed with awe at the wonderful pictures she wove.

Unfortuately, Arachne was admired but never loved as she boasted endlessly about her own skill and deftness. She was so sure of her skills that she boasted that not even Athene, the goddess of wisdom and patroness of arts could rival her work. Athene was so incensed by these taunts that she visited Arachne, disguised as an old woman, and warned her against incurring the wrath of the gods. Arachne dismissed the warning and claimed if ever she met Athene she would challenge her to a contest. athene threw off her cloak and accepted the challenge.
                            
Athene chose for her tapestry her own contest with Neptune while Arachne chose the abduction of Europa. as their labours finished, each turned to see the other's work and while Arachne's tapestry was wonderful, one glance at Athene's work sufficed to show that Arachne was beaten. 

In despair, Arachne tried to hang herself in her own tapestry; however, Athene was unwilling for her rival to escape so easily and changed her suspended body into a misshapen and repulsive form and condemned her to continue weaving throughout the ages. So the ancient greeks explained the origin of spiders and the name of Arachne has been used by science.