The Dance of the Spider's Bite
In southern Italy, people bitten by a spider were said to be cured only by music: they danced, sometimes for days, until the poison left them.
What was reported
From the Middle Ages, people in Apulia, mostly women, who said they'd been bitten by a tarantula fell into a state of lethargy and distress. The cure was music: musicians came to their homes and played fast, whirling tunes, and the 'tarantate' danced, sometimes for days, until they were well.
The dance became the tarantella. Every year on 29 June, the tarantate gathered at the chapel of St Paul in Galatina, the saint who protects against spiders, to dance and pray.
Explanations offered
The local spider's bite is rarely dangerous. In 1959, the anthropologist Ernesto de Martino studied tarantism and saw it as a ritual through which people, especially poor women, could express suffering and be cared for by their community. It faded in the 20th century, but its music lives on in festivals.
- When
- From the Middle Ages to the 20th century
- Where
- Galatina, Apulia, Italy
- Witnesses
- Villagers, priests, doctors and anthropologists
- Status
- Partly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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