#greek myth retellings
This is a test image as I’m experimenting with another style of simple linework. Sometimes I want to do more linework variety in a simple, faster and graphic style. Maybe I could pepper these types of images into my book alongside the color paintings. What do you guys think?
part 4:
As Perseus was the son of Zeus, the gods heard his prayers. Athena answered, offering strategic information on the only ones who knew the locations of the The Gorgon sisters, were in fact, another set of three sisters; the sisters Graeae. These are three gray haired old hags with swan like bodies, who share but one eye and tooth between them. Hermes, God of travelers and ally to mortals, also offered his guidance to the distant realm. After many weeks of difficult trekking, Perseus found himself on the island of Cisthene, in the craggy land of the sisters Graeae. Sneaking upon the women, he waited until they passed their one eye between them, snatching it away, and threatening to heave it into the sea. The Graeae gave in, revealing the location of the Gorgon sisters. But it would be no easy task. The gorgon sisters had golden wings, bronze hands, snakes for hair, and worst of all, their gazes turned men to stone. Perseus would need sacred weapons for such a mission. And, according to Athena, there was only one group who could provide them: the sea nymphs.
With the 3 sisters we can the first of many examples of the “triple goddess” archetype in Old world mythology. Some are represented with one body and three forms (triple bodied Hekate) while most are three individuals. (i.e. “The Morai” (fates), “the Horai” (seasons) “The Furies,” “The Hesperides,”(graces) and “the Gorgons.”) We can see other examples from other ancient cultures, like the Norse “Norns” or the Christian holy trinity of the father, son, and holy spirit. Even Shakespeare, a student of Greek myth and poetry, chose three witches to prophecy to Macbeth.
Karl Kerenyi explains the connection with the moon phases; “With Hera the correspondences of the mythological and cosmic transformation extended to all three phases in which the Greeks saw the moon: she corresponded to the waxing moon as maiden, to the full moon as fulfilled wife, to the waning moon as abandoned withdrawing women” While, according to Erich Neumann the triple deity archetype refers to “…the three temporal stages of all growth (beginning-middle-end, birth-life-death, past-present-future).“
**if you have any further thoughts to add to this concept of the “triple goddess” archetype-Please comment below!
Here we can also see the variations of myths in ancient Greek written works. Hesiod mentions two sisters, But Psuedo-Appolodorus mentions three, And Aeschylus, in his lost “Perseus trilogy”, refers to them as having swan like features. So while most art portrays them as old, human crones, I chose to lean into the swan like features for something a bit more horrific. Their sisters are the Gorgons after all.
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part 3:
Perseus was lovingly raised into a fine young man by the fisherman who found him and his mother. Amazingly, the fisherman’s brother was King Polydectes, the ruler of Seriphos. One evening Perseus is invited to a secret banquet within the king’s hall. It is revealed the party is for guests to offer gifts to the king for a dowry to marry a neighboring princess. Many aristocrats lead fine horses before the king in generous offerings, until finally, Perseus is called up to present his contribution. The boy, unprepared, stands empty handed. Eager to prove his worth, the young man offers to acquire anything the king wishes, even “the Head of a dreaded gorgon”, he jokingly adds. The hall echoes in chuckles. But the king does not laugh. For king Polydectes, secretly desiring Perseus’ mother Danae, has cleverly devised this trap to dispose of the boy. The king immediately agrees to Perseus’ impossible suggestion. Perseus, keeping his composure, gracefully bows and retires. But how on earth can he ever hope to accomplish such an unimaginable task? He will need help. Help from the gods.
Here we have an example of what Joseph Campbell deems the “Call to adventure.” This is the point in a myth or fairytale where the protagonist is either offered or forced into a quest. Sometimes the hero will turn down the call, but in the end, the journey must commence, or else we have no story.
(*I didnt really know what else to discuss in this plot point, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. :)
“Castaways”, Illustrated by me, (#2 in my “Quest for the Gorgon Head” series)
After the miraculous conception, Danae gives birth to a demi-god son she names Perseus. King Akrisios, not believing the child to have been born of Zeus, and to punish her, places her and the child into a chest and casts them into the sea. Through the will of Zeus, the pair find safe passage to the shore of Seriphos. Here they are rescued upon the coast by a fisherman, Diktys, who raises Perseus. But Diktys brother is king Polydektes, who, becoming enamored with Danae, seeks to remove the protective Perseus from his path of desire.
What I find fascinating about this plot point is it being an early example of the “child surviving sure death to fulfill destiny as the chosen one” archetype. From the Book of Exodus (600 B.C.) we have a similar structure of abandonment, rescue from water, and adoption by royalty. In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh ordered the slaughter of Israelite children, so Moses’ mother placed him within a basket, and cast him off into the Nile, to later be discovered and adopted by the Egyptian royal family.
It also brings to mind another similar structure used by Sophocles in his famous tragedy “Oedipus Rex.” (429.B.C.) Queen Jocasta, hearing a prophecy that her son will kill his father (her husband) gives the baby away to a shepherd to leave out exposed on a mountain side, but the shepherd saves the baby’s life, thus allowing Oedipus to live on to fulfill the prophecy. But that’s a tale for another time.
In the first plot point of the “Perseus Quests for the Gorgon head” myth we begin with a dark prophecy, a cruel king, and a miraculous birth. A cracking good start! King Akrisios of Argos receives an ominous warning from the oracle that his daughter, Danae, will give birth to a child that will slay the king. These pesky father slaying prophecies pop up again and again in Greek myth; Cronus being overthrown by his son (Zeus) and Zeus in turn being overthrown by his offspring with Metis.
So what does our King Akriosis do with his daughter? Well, he imprisons her into an underground Bronze chamber of course! keeping her and her womb far from any pesky suitor’s libidos. But Zeus, never one to let such barriers prevent him from copulation, is the ultimate shapeshifter here. He visits Danae, and morphs into a gaseous cloud, penetrating into the cracks of the chamber, seducing Danae with warmth and wonder, pouring his favor upon her in the form of a golden rain. The symbolism is clear here, as rain fertilizing crops is standard symbolism for intercourse in Greek erotic poetry.
There is much debate through a modern lens at Zeus’s conquests; is he raping or seducing? Well, it depends on the myth, the source, and translation. He, and many other gods, do both. In certain tales, they seduce the willing, and in others, they rape the unwilling. With Danae, it was left open to my artistic interpretation. I decided that Danae, having been chained in a bronze dungeon cell by her own father, in her isolation and confinement, welcomes the deity and a child into her womb as a miracle. But when Danae gives birth to her son, a little boy she names Perseus, the King has a cruel plan for them both. Stay tuned for the next titillating episode!
*for anyone that followed my “Olympians” series, i want to let you know that I’ll be illustrating the main heroic myths over the next 6-8 months, with the goal of compiling these into a book later in the year. If you want to come on board into this process with me, please join me over on my discord server, where ill be posting my work-in-progress images, and even be making my manuscript available to folks for feedback, beta reading, advice, etc. In fact. my text posts accompanying these images are a sort of rough draft to the types of commentary i hope to accompany these images in my book. Anyways, I hope to see you over there :)
If you wish to see more of my Greek Myth art, please click on my link tree in my bio to see insta, Etsy print shop, etc. Thanks! xoxo
So here’s my first Olympian illustration. I started with big daddy.
Can you all guess at the meaning of symbolism in the piece? (the animals, the winged figures above his hand, the eye-light beam-to figure on the temple?)
One challenge with these, is that I want to include a lot of visual references to the god’s story and background, but I don’t want the illustration to get too cluttered and overly busy. This becomes even more challenging as I add in textures, which can quickly become like a “visual noise.”
