the Spider of Heaven's Road
Lozi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Animal helper / spirit-class, classed as deity per the instruction to map spirit-classes to deity/demigod. The agent of the creator's ascent in the spider-thread cycle, and the aetiology of why heaven is now unreachable; sex unspecified in the sources.
Domains
- threshold between worlds
Powers
- spin the thread that joins earth and sky
Sources
- In Lozi myth a spider spins the thread by which Nyambe ascends to heaven and is afterward blinded so the way cannot be found again.: Jalla, A. (1921). Litaba za Sicaba sa Malozi. Cape Town. (secondary); Werner, A. (1933). Myths and Legends of the Bantu. London: George G. Harrap, ch. III. (secondary)