Anansi the Spider

Anansi the Spider is a Trickster persona in West-African mythology. He was rather ruthless, and didn't shirk to betray his own friends and wife when it would help him get what he wanted. His stories are often funny, but always there is a hidden morale. These stories are told to children to teach them.
This is the story of how Anansi got his stories:

"Once there were no stories in the world. The Sky-God, Nyame, had them all. Anansi went to Nyame and asked how much they would cost to buy.

Nyame set a high price: Anansi must bring back Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard, the Mmoboro Hornets, and Mmoatia, the dwarf.

Anansi set about capturing these. First he went to where Python lived and debated out loud whether Python was really longer than the palm branch or not as his wife Aso says. Python overheard and, when Anansi explained the debate, agreed to lie along the palm branch. Because he cannot easily make himself completely straight a true impression of his actual length is difficult to obtain, so Python agreed to be tied to the branch. When he was completely tied, Anansi took him to Nyame.

To catch the leopard, Anansi dug a deep hole in the ground. When the leopard fell in the hole Anansi offered to help him out with his webs. Once the leopard was out of the hole though he was bound in Anansi's webs and was carried away.

To catch the hornets, Anansi filled a calabash with water and poured some over a banana leaf he held over his head and some over the nest, calling out that it was raining. He suggested the hornets get into the empty calabash, and when they obliged, he quickly sealed the opening.

To catch the dwarf he made a doll and covered it with sticky gum. He placed the doll under the odum tree where the dwarfs play and put some yam in a bowl in front of it. When the dwarf came and ate the yam she thanked the doll which of course did not reply. Annoyed at its bad manners she struck it, first with one hand then the other. The hands stuck and Anansi captured her.

Anansi handed his captives over to Nyame who rewards him with the stories, which now become known as Anansi stories or Anansesem."

Cleopatra's Suicide

I won't go listing all the events following up to Cleopatra's death. Those are known and easy to find on the internet.
On her death is some controversy however. There are two possibilities:
Either she made a deadly venemous snake bite her, or she put an envenomed pin in her arm. Known is she had small marks on her arm, but those could have been made by either.

Also note the difference between venom and poison: venom is safe to drink, if you have no wounds in your mouth or stomach. It's said to taste kind of spicy or salty, but no harm is done if you drink snake venom. So it is ruled out she could have drunk snake venom, as some sources on the internet say.

So she also could have drunk a poison coctail. Possible, but were would the marks on her arm come from? It's unlikely she scratched herself in such a manner, I'd say, but I'm no expert of course.

That remains with two options: a snake, or an envenomed pin. If you read some stuff about Cleopatra, you'll see that she is a devious person, wanting power. She made almost a living legend of herself at the time.
Knowing this, I would say she had a snake bite her. It's highly symbolic, especially if she took a cobra. (For reasons look at blog entry below.)

In several letters/writings of old philosophers(or whatever they're called. A historical source.) there is written about an asp. An asp is a viper species (Vipera aspis) native to Europe, but it doesn't live in Egypt.

The other option is the Egyptian Cobra(Naja haje). Rumored is that Cleopatra had several of her servants attempt suicide with several venomous snake species, and that this one would be the least painful of them all.
I find it believable. Some guy named Cristoph Schäfer said in the Daily Telegraph(He is for the poison coctail possibility): "She would never want to die to a slow death, one that would deform her."
Stupid! He should have made sure first what kind of venom the Egyptian Cobra posseses.
It posseses neurotixic venom, which paralyses and makes the heart and lungs stop functioning. Perhaps it would be a panicky death, because of the sensation not being able to breath- but it surely wouldn't deform her. It seems to me that he has simply repeated something he vaguely heard somewhere else. There is indeed snake venom that deforms the flesh, but that is hemotoxic venom, not neurotoxic.

So I think that she killed herself by smuggling an Egyptian Cobra into the room. It's highly symbolic, speaks to the imagination and relatively painless. However, until her grave and body are found, which is highly unlikely, we will never know the truth. Would we want to though? Sometimes it is good for the human to know he can't know everything. If he would, what reason would there be to live for? I'd like for this to remain a mystery for ever. What do you think?

Wadjet

How I came to this subject, I wonder? I believe it might have something to do with my snake, whom I named after this rather unknown Egyptian Goddess.

Wadjet(the goddess) is rather unknown, as I stated before. She is also known under many names, some of wich are: Edjo, Udjo and Buto.
Usually she is depicted as the protector of Lower Egypt(with the delta). Wadjet was also the goddess of childbirth, protector of children and later on the kings.

Often she is found as a rearing cobra on the heads of rulers. For an example, look at Tutanchamon's Death Mask.

Legend has it that Wadjet was the daughter of Atum, the first god of the Universe. He created her as his eye. Her purpose was to search the Universe for his lost sons, Tefnut and Shu. Wadjet did find his sons, and Atum was so happy to see them that he cried. It is said that those tears made humans. As a reward, Atum placed Wadjet upon his head in the form of a cobra. There she would be feared and respected by all the gods and men.


The real Egyptian Cobra, Naja haje, is rumored to be the 'cause' for Cleopatra's suicide. She experimented on prisoners to see which venom was the least painful. Perhaps a new blog entry will be dedicated to Cleopatra and the role of the snake in her life(or death, as you wish).