Among autumn’s most evocative sights is the weak morning light sparkling on droplets of dew caught up in the webs of spiders. Our gardens and woodlands seem strewn with these complex structures, their inhabitants toiling away even through the very coldest months, creating those silken masterpieces – part home, part larder.
Children’s culture celebrates the spider as a benign creature – from the beleaguered protagonist of ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ to the wise and brave Charlotte in EB White’s classic novel. These much-loved characters, applauded for their industry and the complexity of their weaving, are a far cry from the dark menace delivered fully fanged into the popular culture of adulthood.
The earliest civilisations all have stories of the eight-legged arthropod, from Uttu the weaver goddess of Sumerian tradition, to Anansi the trickster…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2019