Tag Archives: spiders

Arachne

Age: 22
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Text


“There was this one myth I remember hearing in sixth grade during our Ancient Greece unit. There was once a woman named Arachne who was known for being a talented weaver and embroiderer. People believed that Athena taught her how to weave, but Arachne proclaimed herself as being more talented than Athena and even wanted to compete with her in a contest. 

Athena came to her and warned her that she needed to respect the gods, and eventually the two competed. Athena made a tapestry that showed the importance of paying respect to the gods and Arachne was defiant and made a tapestry showing the flaws of the gods. Arachne was then punished and transformed into a spider, forced to weave for the rest of her life.”

Context

The informant recalls hearing this myth in a sixth grade. He believes that they weren’t specifically taught this myth in class, but that he read it on his own time. He believes that the significance of this story is that with great power comes great responsibility. Just because you are talented at something does not give you the right to boast about it.

Interpretation

This story is an Ancient Greek myth that serves as a possible explanation for how spiders came into our world and why spiders weave webs. In the story, Arachne commits hubris, which is known amongst the Greeks as the demonstration of excessive pride. Hubris is often a fatal flaw and leads to the downfall of the individual. In Greek mythology, the Gods and Goddesses have great power and expect everyone to demonstrate humility towards them. This myth acts as a moral lesson that you should not brag about your talents and disrespect those that have greater power.

Folk Belief: Spiders

Nationality: American- German, Austrian, Irish
Age: 45
Occupation: Business administrator
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 21, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Killing spiders is bad luck.

My informant says that when he finds spiders in the house he takes them and relocates them outside instead of killing them. He learned this folk belief from a nun in grade school. The nun didn’t them why it was bad luck but he rationalized it as if you relocate the spiders you’ll get fewer spiders. He figured that if you smash them they’ll multiply and come after you. He also states them relocating them isn’t necessary; you just have to avoid killing them. The reason he relocates them is because the people he lives with are afraid of spiders. He doesn’t still believe that spiders will come after him but he still relocates them anyway.

I’ve heard this folk belief before but I never associated it with Catholic nuns. The version I’ve heard focused on the fact that spiders kill pests so it is not a good idea to kill them. Maybe this belief is related to a “you should value life in general” dimension to this belief.  The “killing insects” is bad luck folk belief is something I’ve heard before but generally the one I was taught was that its bad luck to kill ladybugs. I understand why killing either would be bad luck, ladybugs and spiders kill pests so their good to have around. In my house whenever someone sees a spider they want it dead. Maybe its because ladybugs are rarer or maybe its because spiders aren’t cute. For some reason spiders aren’t generally given the same amount of reverence other bugs get.

Killing Spiders Brings the Rain

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/13
Primary Language: Swedish
Language: English

So, if you kill a spider, it will rain the next day. But I don’t think it really works because I’ve killed a lot of spiders, and it haven’t really been raining the next day. I learned it when I was little from my… I think it was my parents, but I’ve known it for…well it feels like forever.

 

Stina is from Sweden and she says that this is a common belief in Swedish culture. She does not, however, find it to be true. She said that she’s killed many spiders and it has never really rained the next day. She said that the one time that it did rain, rain was already in the forecast for the next day and that she just happened to kill a spider the day before.

 

This belief about killing spiders differs from my own. I have always been conscious about not killing spiders for a number of reasons: spiders trap flies I their web and so they are valuable to have around; I also have had a number of experiences where I killed a spider and, that night, I had horrible dreams that I was being attacked by giant spiders. Since those dreams [some years ago] I’ve only killed one spider. I am not particularly arachnophobia, so I have no real issues with spiders. I would never kill a spider unless it was physically harming me.

 

Based on my experience, my version of Stina’s story would read, “If you kill a spider you will have nightmares that night”. 

Killing Spiders

Killing Spiders is bad luck.

My informant first heard this from his girlfriend a few years ago. He described his girlfriend as being “really superstitious,” and seemed to disregard most of her other beliefs. Perhaps his belief in this is related to his arachnophobia.

This folk belief can also be found in The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn. p 171

http://books.google.com/books?id=n2FA-nwz7GYC&lpg=PA171&ots=Zpmm96UjrP&dq=tom%20sawyer%20spider%20kill&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q&f=false