Spider told by the Roman poet Ovid in his "Metamorphoses", Arachne was a Lydian girl who challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest. Arachne won, but Athena destroyed her tapestry out of jealousy, causing Arachne to hang herself. In an act of mercy, Athena brought Arachne back to life as the first spider. Stories about the trickster-spider Anansi are prominent in the folk traditions of the Asante people of Ghana. In some cultures, spiders have symbolized patience due to their hunting technique of setting webs and waiting for prey, as well as mischief and malice due to their venomous bites.
A Noiseless Patient Spider A Noiseless Patient Spider "A Noiseless Patient Spider" is a short poem by Walt Whitman, published in an 1891 edition of "Leaves of Grass". It was originally part of his poem "Whispers of Heavenly Death", written expressly for "The Broadway, A London Magazine", issue 10 (October 1868), numbered as stanza "3". It was retitled "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in "Passage to India" (1871). The poem's most prevalent literary technique is imagery; it is difficult to find even one line that does not contain a vivid image. The first, and one of the