In Hopi mythology, what is the name of the spider grandmother?
Answer
Spider Grandmother
Answer
Spider Grandmother
In Hopi mythology, the spider grandmother is Spider Grandmother.
Spider Grandmother, known in Hopi as Kokyangwuti and also by names such as Gogyeng Sowuhti, is a wise supernatural guide who may appear as an elderly woman or as a spider. She is associated with intelligence, protection, healing, teaching, and the creation or ordering of life. Her spider form is traditionally connected with an underground dwelling resembling a kiva.
In important Hopi creation narratives, Spider Grandmother works with Tawa, the sun spirit, or serves as an emissary of a higher creator. She helps bring living beings into existence, gives them guidance, and leads them through successive worlds. In emergence stories, she assists people as they travel toward the present Fourth World, sometimes helping them escape destruction in an earlier world.
She is also connected with practical knowledge. Traditional stories credit her with teaching people skills such as weaving and pottery, and with advising travelers and heroes. “Spider Woman” can refer to related figures in other Southwestern traditions, including Navajo stories, but the Hopi figure named by this question is conventionally called Spider Grandmother.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026