Trickster Animal

myth:trickster_animal

And the animal-mind that outwits the human: the Coyote who steals the fire, the Raven who brings the light, the spider Anansi who wins the stories of the sky god, the fox who outsmarts the hunter. The trickster is always animal-shaped because the animal knows things the human does not — the tracks, the scent, the season — and the trickster-wisdom is the wisdom of the creature who survives by its wits in a world that does not owe it a living. — comparative myth