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Throughout history, there have been many depictions of spiders in popular culture, mythology and symbolism. From Greek mythology to African folklore, the spider has been used in human culture to represent many varied things and indeed endures on into the present day with characters such as Shelob from The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man from the eponymous comic series. The spider has symbolised patience due to its hunting technique of setting webs and waiting for prey, as well as mischief and malice for its poison and the slow death it causes, its venom often seen as a curse.
Although not all spiders spin webs to hunt prey, they have been attributed by numerous cultures with the origination of basket-weaving, knotwork, weaving, spinning and net making. Web-spinning also caused the association of the spider with creation myths as they seem to have the ability to excrete their own artistic worlds. Spiders have been the focus of fears, stories and mythologies of various cultures for centuries. (Full article...)