In the beginning all of the stories of
the world were kept by Nyame, the sky god. Anansi wanted to be able
to tell stories, so he went to Nyame and asked to buy the stories
from him. Nyame warned him that the price was steep, but Anansi
still pushed for them. The sky god agreed that the stories would
belong to Anansi if the spider could bring him a nest of hornets, a
giant python, and a mighty leopard.
Anansi set out on his quest, confident
in his abilities. He began with the hornets. First the spider found
a hollow gourd and cut a small hole in it. He went to where the
hornets lived and poured water all over the nearby trees and himself.
Thoroughly soaked, Anansi incredulously asked the hornets why they
were staying in the rain. He held up the gourd and offered it to
them as shelter from the storm. The grateful hornets flew in one by
one. When they had all filed in, Anansi plugged up the hole. He
delivered the hornets to Nyame.
The next challenge was the python. Anansi greeted the enormous snake and struck up a conversation with him. The spider claimed that he and his wife had gotten into a debate – was the python larger or smaller than a pole which lay nearby? The snake obligingly offered to lay near the pole so that Anansi could measure him against it and see which was longer. The spider asked if he could tie the python to the pole, to make sure that both lay straight.
In the end, of course, the python was strapped to a pole. It was all too easy for Anansi to carry him off to Nyame.
The last animal needed was the leopard. Anansi dug a deep pit in the ground, then covered it with branches and leaves so that it was invisible. When the leopard walked over it, the branches gave way and he fell. Anansi “just so happened” to be walking along, and offered to help rescue the leopard.
The spider bent a tree over so that its top touched the ground, and tied it off. He tied another rope around the tree and dropped the other end into the hole with the leopard. The cat, thinking it would lead to his freedom, followed Anansi's instructions and tied the rope around his tail.
As soon as he had, Anansi cut the rope
holding the tree to the ground. It sprang back into the air – and
it took the leopard with it!
Anansi found the cat dangling from the
tree by his tail. It was a simple matter then to capture him.
When he returned to Nyame with the
leopard, the sky god could not deny that Anansi had met all of his
terms. He gave all of his stories to Anansi.
That is the story of how the spider got
his tales.
Alright, I promised you guys I'd take a look at some of the appearances of Anansi in pop culture. He appears in some of the works by author Neil Gaiman (who's absolutely brilliant and you should totally check out if you haven't!). The books American Gods and Anansi Boys both deal with the spider trickster.
It's been years since I've seen it, but the Gargoyles animated television show had a few episodes where a spider named Anansi appeared. I hadn't realized when I watched it, but Gargoyles actually draws a lot from various mythologies and folktales. Avalon and the character of Oberon (most well-known for his Shakespeare character) both make appearances in the show. I'll have to go back and watch it again to see what else does!
The last set I'll mention in this post is comics. Both DC and Marvel have incarnations of Anansi. The DC version interacts with the character of Vixen, and his actions are pretty fitting for a (mostly) benevolent trickster. The Marvel version appears a few more times, and his appearances are frequently tied into the Spider Man stories. Though I haven't read it myself, I'm told Anansi was actually the first Spider Man.
Thanks for reading, guys! And, since I neglected to mention it elsewhere in my post...Arrr, maties! Happy Talk Like a Pirate day! I hopes ye're havin' a good time, and doin' somethin' piratical and awesome! Avast!
I'll see you next week!
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