Areop-Enap

At the beginning of creation only Areop-Enap and the sea existed. Areop-Enap, identified as an 'old spider', lives at first in darkness and is swallowed by a great clam. Inside the clam he explores and organizes other creatures (two snails, a white worm or caterpillar called Rigi, and small animals) to pry open the shell. When the clam is opened, its lower shell becomes the earth and its upper shell becomes the sky; the snails are placed in the sky as the sun and moon (variants in sources name a Tridacna clam and a Triton's Horn shellfish), islands and vegetation are made (vegetation spun from Areop-Enap's web-thread), humans are created from stones to support the sky, and Rigi, after drowning in his sweat, is wrapped in silk and hung as the Milky Way. Sources record these elements with noted variants rather than detailed ritual or cultic practice.

Sources identify Areop-Enap simply as a spider — glossed as 'old spider' — with narrative emphasis on his spinning of web-thread and use of silk; no further detailed bodily description (size, color, anthropomorphic features) is recorded in the cited summaries.

In the creation narrative Areop-Enap conceives and effects major transformations: he spins vegetation from his web-thread, uses shell-material to make earth and sky, fashions islands from clam-flesh, creates humans from stones to hold up the sky, and produces a small winged creature from dirt under his nails to learn the names of other beings. He organizes and compels other creatures (asking snails to pry open the clam; persuading or directing Rigi to open the shell), wraps Rigi in silk to make the Milky Way, and repurposes preexisting matter into ordered cosmic features. Variants in the tale describe differing agents and materials but preserve these creative actions.