Living being in The Oz Series
the great spider
Also known as a most tremendous monster, this fierce creature, your enemy.
A tremendous man-eating monster like a great spider that lately invaded the forest: a body as big as an elephant on eight tree-trunk legs, coarse black hair, a great mouth of foot-long teeth, and a slender wasp-waist neck; it devours the forest animals until the Lion beheads it in its sleep.
Appears in 1 chapters, first in chapter 21, last in chapter 21.
This encyclopedia covers chapters 1 to 100 of the story and shows the world as it stands at chapter 100, so it contains spoilers up to that point. To read it spoiler free, one chapter at a time, open the interactive codex.
What the story establishes
| Appearance | Spider-like and hideous: a pudgy body as big as an elephant covered in coarse black hair, eight legs as long as tree trunks, a great mouth with a row of sharp foot-long teeth, and a head joined to the body by a neck as slender as a wasp's waist. (as of ch. 21) |
| Being nature | A monstrous, non-speaking giant spider-like beast of enormous size. |
| Body conditions | An enormous heavy body carried on eight long legs, with a fatally slender wasp-thin neck joining head to body. |
| Conflict | It terrorizes the whole forest, devouring its animals — including all the other lions — until the Cowardly Lion slays it. (as of ch. 21) |
| Gender identity | man (as of ch. 21) |
| Health condition | Dead: its head struck clean from its body by the Lion's paw. (as of ch. 21) |
| Is alive | no (as of ch. 21) |
| Motive | To hunt and devour the animals of the forest, seizing them and eating them like a spider eating flies. (as of ch. 21) |
| Referential profile | masculine (as of ch. 21) |
| Skills | Seizes animals with its long legs and drags them to its great mouth to devour them, as a spider eats a fly. (as of ch. 21) |
| Social status | The dreaded overlord-predator of the forest: a lately-come 'fierce enemy' and 'tremendous monster' before whom no beast is safe. (as of ch. 21) |
| Special capabilities | Can seize and drag prey with its long legs, eating forest animals whole like a spider eating flies. |
| Status | Dead — beheaded by the Cowardly Lion while it slept. (as of ch. 21) |
Relationships
- kills ← Cowardly Lion (ended) ch. 21The Cowardly Lion finds the giant spider-monster asleep, springs onto its back, and with one blow of his clawed paw strikes its head from its body, watching until its legs stop wiggling and it is quite dead.
- threatens → the beasts of the forest (ended) ch. 21The spider-monster terrorizes the whole assembly of forest beasts, seizing and devouring them one by one, so that none is safe while it lives.
- enemy of · the beasts of the forest (ended) ch. 21The spider-monster is the forest beasts' deadly enemy, a lately-arrived predator that hunts and eats them until the Lion kills it.
- kills → the beasts of the forest (ended) ch. 21The spider-monster has been devouring the forest beasts, and has already eaten all the forest's lions before the Cowardly Lion arrives.
- located in → the forest of the beasts (ended) ch. 21The spider-monster lairs within the forest among the oak trees, where the Lion finds it asleep and kills it.
From the text
It is a most tremendous monster, like a great spider, with a body as big as an elephant and legs as long as a tree trunk.Chapter 21
See the great spider chapter by chapter in the interactive codex →