La Taranta

The tarantula is a big spider from the Puglia, whose sting causes painful swelling. At harvest time, peasants who work barefoot, are sometimes victims of the taranta. Though the sting is not venomous, folk belief has it that the victims (“tarantati”) are possessed by Evil and, as time goes, are considered as affected by a diease similar to hysteria or epilepsy. To get away from it, the “tarantati” swing themselves into convulsive movements, to a the rhythm of increasingly speeding music, which is the origin of tarantella, a dance from Southern Italy.