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The Spider Woman


© AMNH / Denis Finnin

A Southwest Native Myth

—Hopi artist Michael Kabotie

Spider Woman appears in stories throughout the Southwest, often as a powerful teacher and helper. In some Southwestern cultures, Spider Woman taught people to spin thread and weave cloth, thus sharing with humans the spider's ability to make webs.

The Hopis speak of a Spider Grandmother who, conscientiously weaving her webs, thought the world itself into existence. In the Navajo creation story, people travel up through four lower worlds, creating chaos and disorder until they are banished from each in turn. At one level, they are threatened by a devastating flood but Spider Woman rescues them by weaving a web to create solid ground before the water sweeps over them.

In this excerpt from the Hopi Snake Myth, recorded circa 1900, a young man journeys to the home of the Snake People. There, with the help of Spider Woman, he meets a beautiful Snake Maiden.

Spider Woman and the Birth of the Snake Clan


While he had turned away and the Snake People had been dressing themselves, Spider Woman had whispered to him that they were now going to try him very hard, but that he should not be afraid to touch the snakes; and she gave him many instructions....

Spider Woman whispered to the young man that the one that acted so very angrily was the pretty maiden and that he should try to take that one. He tried, but the snake was very wild and fierce. "Be not afraid," Spider Woman whispered.... He at once grabbed it, held and stroked it four times upward, each time spurting a little medicine on it, and thus freeing it from its anger.

The snake then changes back into a beautiful maiden; the two later marry, and their children become the ancestors of the Snake Clan.

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