The floating web

For centuries now, textiles and the skills required in their creation- spinning, weaving, embroidery, sewing, quilting-have been considered to be women's work, occupying them indoors while men engaged in more serious activities like warfare. In Homer's Iliad, Andromache, wife to the Trojan prince, Hector, begs him not to risk his life in battle, leaving her widowed and his son an orphan, only to have him send her home: