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TRICKSTERS IN MYTH & FOLKLORE.
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Compares two Trickster characters, the spider-man of Ghana (Kweku Ananse) & a part-man/part-god Greek figure (Prometheus).... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Compares two Trickster characters, the spider-man of Ghana (Kweku Ananse) & a part-man/part-god Greek figure (Prometheus).

Paper Introduction:
For those people (whether they are themselves religious or not) who have grown up immersed in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the image of the archetypal divine figure – whether god or angel or saint – is an entity of pure goodness. Moreover, within the Judeo-Christian tradition, divine beings are most certainly both honest and trustworthy; indeed one of the ways that humans and divine entities may be distinguished from each other is precisely along this axis. But this distinction between humans as inconstant and fallible and gods and their minions as trustworthy, always good and perfectly honest is a certainly not a universal aspect of human pantheons. In fact, it may exist in a minority of human cultures, for many of the world’s religions contain a figure who straddles these descriptive categories. This being, who is in the class

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In establishing this bipartite typology, it should be noted that theredoes exist an intermediary form between the two as represented by Hermes,who may be primarily a Trickster or may be primarily something else - athief, at least some of the time (Brown 11). This merging of a divine entity and a human one seems to be a usefulexplanatory model for Trickster figures like that of Prometheus. But this distinction between humans as inconstant and fallible andgods and their minions as trustworthy, always good and perfectly honest isa certainly not a universal aspect of human pantheons. Gods of the North. In this model, the Trickster can be seen as a sort ofpsychological compromise between the human world and the world of magic orthe gods, a creature who is both like humans and related to the strongerforces of the world. Hermes the Thief: The Evolution of a Myth. The Trickster figure is one of the most intriguing characters to befound within the entire realm of human creation. The Trickster is achaotic figure - not resulting from the absence of all possible conceivableorders, but from the presence of all orders at once. Thispaper examines two different Trickster types drawn from two very differentcultures, Kweku Ananse, the spider-man of Ghana and a figure drawn fromclassical Greek myth, Prometheus. Thieves of Fire. West African Trickster Tales. Theend result is that depending on which angle one looks at him from - he canappear to be either a primary or secondary Trickster figure (Brown 22-25). New York: Bollingen, 1963.Welsch, Roger. Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence. This model helpsexplain the fact that while the Trickster is often victorious because ofhis (or her - although almost always his) cleverness and skills, sometimeshe is a bumbling, foolish figure. When it came time to create a being who was to be superior to allother living creatures, Epimetheus found he had been so reckless with hisresources that he had nothing left to bestow. It was noted above that part of the appeal of the Trickster is thatthis character quite often helps create a sense of resolution that is oftenmissing in ordinary life - ensuring that the good are rewarded and the evilpunished. The storyof Prometheus is, of course, primarily a story about theft, and this isinteresting, for thievery is almost synonymous with trickery in religioustraditions as diverse as the Norse -- for example the god Loki'sinvolvement in stealing magic apples (Branston 2 9) and the Navajo - asseen in all of the Coyote stories of the Navajo tradition. (It should be noted that the cleverTrickster sometimes fails and the bumbling Trickster sometimes succeeds.)This duality of cleverness and haplessness can be explained by A Jungian(or perhaps Jungian-esque) concatenation of destructive and creativeforces. Christian doctrine tells people that the good shall be rewarded andthe evil punished in the next world. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994.Branston, Brian. Thereafter, only fat and bones weresacrificed to the gods; the good meat was kept for mortals. Sometimes he shifts fromone form to the other.) Another model that explains the Trickster character is that it comesabout through the merging of the divine and the human into a single entity(Welsch 18). A number of possible explanatory models can be brought to bear toexplain the commonality of the Trickster figure in so many differentcultures and religious/moral systems. He was forced to ask hisbrother's help, and Prometheus ("Forethought") took over the task ofcreation. And sometimes things turn outdifferently than one hoped for but still satisfactorily. This is not quite the same position inhabited byangels and their kin, who show humans the way to godliness by being lessintimidating and distant than the gods themselves. A Jungian explanation posits the Trickster as both a creative and adestructive force, one corresponding to childhood (a time of both instinctand learning, of cruelty and naiveté, of an inability to distinguishbetween good and evil (Rigal-Cellard in Krupat 318). New York: Vanguard,Brown, Norman. hisidentity as that of Hermes the Trickster god) and his later position as agood and trustworthy divinity become superimposed on top of each other. Inthe other, he placed the bones, which he covered with fat. Works CitedBennett, Martin. Rather, Tricksters existnot because humans need semi-divine creatures to help them understand theincomprehensibly high divinity of the gods; Tricksters exist simply becausethey have to, because they help to mitigate the many ways in which theworld is unfair. Washington: Smithsonian, 1993.Kerenyi, C. Chicago: Sage/Swallow P, 1981. Kweku Ananse is an archetypalprimary Trickster figure, in a sense a figure whose entire raison d'être isto promote sufficient discord in society that he himself can createopportunities that allow him in general to come out on top. This paper examines two of them - onethat seems the most appropriate for defining and explaining the primaryTrickster character and one that seems to define and explain the secondaryTrickster character. Great Barrington MA: Lindisfarne, 199 .Donoghue, Denis. This duality of Hermes in facthas historical roots, for when he first appears as a part of Greek culture,he is indeed a Trickster, but as changes in concepts of everything fromdivinity to private property rights occur over the course of thedevelopment of Greek history, the way Hermes is interpreted shifts.Gradually, the earlier version of his motivations and powers (i.e. Zeus, asked tochoose between the two, took the fat and was very angry when he discoveredthat it covered a pile of bones. (What exactly Kweku Ananse isvaries from tale to tale and teller to teller. This chain ofevents marks Prometheus as a secondary Trickster character, one who mostcertainly possesses Trickster qualities - but one in whom these qualitiesare ancillary to the core of the character and the way he (or she) mediatesbetween gods and humans (Donoghue 61). To make humans superior to the animals, he fashioned them innobler form and enabled them to walk upright. It isalso at this point in the story that his (secondary) Trickster nature isrevealed. It is also clearly displayed by Kweku Ananse in stories like"Ananse Meets His Measure" (Bennett 61-9). Neither pure (andtherefore in some ways intellectually uninteresting) like the gods norpurely evil (and therefore also uninteresting) like the devils, theTrickster is always potentially both good and evil. In one pile, Prometheus arranged the edibleparts of an ox in a hide and disguised them with a covering of entrails. Rather,he is analogous to an entire concept - the whole afterlife of heaven andhell. He then went up to heaven andlit a torch with fire from the sun. For those people (whether they are themselves religious or not) whohave grown up immersed in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the image of thearchetypal divine figure - whether god or angel or saint - is an entity ofpure goodness. Epimetheus("Afterthought") bestowed on the various animals gifts of courage,strength, swiftness, and feathers, fur, and other protective coverings. Omaha Tribal Myths and Trickster Tales. The Trickster helps remedy human problems some of thetime, and the rest of the time helps humans come to terms with theseambiguities (Welsch 19). A primary Trickster like Ananse makessure that most of the time people they get what they deserve in this world. The gift of fire that Prometheusbestowed upon humanity was more valuable than any of the gifts the animalshad received. In addition to stealing fire for humanity, Prometheus tricked the godsso that they should get the worst parts of any animal sacrificed to them,and human beings the best. He was one of the Titans, who, along with his brother Epimetheuswas given the task of creating humanity and providing humans and all theanimals on earth with the endowments they would need to survive. The gods are rarely so helpful. In reality, lifeis unpredictable and ambiguous and therefore both potentially frighteningand disappointing. Sometimes he is a man withspider-like ways, sometimes he is - at least in outward appearance - aspider. The world of Tricksters can be divided intoprimary and secondary trickster characters. In this sense, a character Like Kweku Ananse is notanalogous to any being or type of being in the Christian pantheon. Sometimes he is bits and pieces of both. New York: Oxofrd UP, 1974.Kaput, Arnold, ed. New Voices in Native American Literary Criticism. At first these characters seem to have little to do with each other.Some of these differences are simply reflections of broader historical andcultural factors, but it is also true that these characters are notperfectly analogous, and the discrepancy between the two goes to the heartof the argument presented in this paper - which is simply that there aretwo types of Tricksters. But the Trickster also serves another, related function that ismore sophisticated than this - although less psychologically satisfying.Usually in Trickster tales things work out well, but sometimes they do not, even when the Trickster tries his hardest. Unlike Kweku Ananse, whose shape and story shifts so dramatically (inpart because he is a primary Trickster, in part because he is the productof an oral rather than a written tradition), Prometheus is easier todefine. The listener (or thereader) never knows which face the Trickster will show at any given moment,and this ability to continually surprise is surely one of the appeals ofthe Trickster figure. In fact, it mayexist in a minority of human cultures, for many of the world's religionscontain a figure who straddles these descriptive categories. This being,who is in the classificatory system of the folklorist known as a Trickster,may be either semi-divine or mortal but in either case serves as anintermediary between the world of the gods and the world of mortals. Up to this part of the story, Prometheus is fulfilling hisprimary function - to create humans and steal fire (Kerenyi 77-82). Moreover, within the Judeo-Christian tradition, divinebeings are most certainly both honest and trustworthy; indeed one of theways that humans and divine entities may be distinguished from each otheris precisely along this axis. Prometheus is,in the context of the paradigm created for this paper, a secondaryTrickster figure, one whose primary duties are not those of a Trickster butwho either chooses to indulge in Trickster activities either to assisthimself (or herself) in carrying out his (or her) primary activities orsimply because such activities have a personal appeal.

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