Spider Old Woman
Pomo · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Primordial 'Old Mother'/spider-ancestress classed 'deity'. 'Ragno' (Italian for 'spider') is the term in de Angulo's published text — his Italian gloss of a Pomo spider-grandmother name; native term not securely recorded, hence term empty.
Domains
- rescue
Powers
- rescue the creators from their own deluge and fire
- Spin the line that rescues the creators
Sources
- The Old Mother (Ragno), a spider/ancestress figure, rescues the Pomo creators Marumda and Kuksu from the world-destroying flood and fire.: Jaime de Angulo & William Ralganal Benson, 'The Creation Myth of the Pomo Indians,' Anthropos 27 (1932). (ethnography)