The Goddess of Wisdom

Hi all!

Soooo it’s Wednesday and we are back on schedule!

Today we are talking about Athena, one of the most talented and likable goddesses of the greek mythology.

Athena was Zeus’s favourite daughter, she being born form his forehead and all that. Naturally, there’s quite an interesting story behind that statement, so here goes.

Metis, Athena’s mother, was the goddess of wisdom; she was also Zeus’ first wife. There was a prophecy though, predicting that her children would be more powerful that their father; Zeus, fearing that his children would overthrow him (in the same way he had overthrown his own father, Cronus), swallowed poor Metis down. But he was too late; Metis was already with child at that point.

Some time later, Zeus was experiencing an enormous headache. Seeking relief, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to cleave his head open with his axe; when he did. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, in all her glory: fully grown and fully armed.

As we can all see, there's too much going on in Eirini's head! :-p
So, this is Athena (obviously!) in all her glory, with her mascot bird thrown in for good measure too! (and yes, that's an olive branch the owl holding, another one of Athena's symbols)
And in case you're wondering, that's Ares she's chasing!
 

Athena was the goddess of wisdom, knowledge, courage, inspiration, justice, strength and skill, strategy, and the arts and crafts.

She was highly intelligent, fair and wise too; even Zeus sought her advice! She was also strong-willed (she never fails to do anything she sets her mind on), independent, strong, brave and selfless.

Athena represented the ordered, strategic side of war, while her brother Ares, god of violence and war, represented the raw, bloody side or war. She didn’t like fighting without purpose and preferred to use her intellect in order to settle arguments.  

She was the patron deity of Athens; back when the city was unnamed and without patronage, she competed with Poseidon for the position. Each would offer the Athenians one gift and then they would choose the gift they preferred. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a water spring sprang up; but the water was salty and not good for drinking. Athena, on the other hand, offered them an olive tree. The Athenians chose Athena’s gift, along with her patronage, for the olive tree brought wood, oil, and food.

Overall, Athena was one of the most loved and respected goddesses; that didn’t mean she didn’t have a “bad” side. She was fair and just, but in the few cases that someone angered her, she showed no mercy.

Take Medusa for instance; she was a beautiful girl that that served as priestess in Athena's temple. Medusa caught Poseidon’s attention and  he tried to rape her inside Athena's temple. When Athena discovered the desecration of her temple, she cursed Medusa and turned her into a monster; Medusa's hair turned into living snakes, and her face was so hideous that meeting her gaze would turn any living creature to stone.

Or Arachne; as we’ve mentioned already, Athena was talented in many crafts, including weaving. There was a girl once, Arachne, who was a very skilled weaver too. Her skills were widely admired and all that admiration went straight her head; she began claiming that her skill was greater that Athena’s.

Athena, in the form of an old woman, warned Arachne not to offend the gods. Arachne ignored her and wished for a weaving contest between the goddess and herself, so she could prove her skill once and for all.

Athena resumed her true form then and the contest began; Athena wove the scene of her victory over Poseidon in claiming the patronage of Ahens. Arachne’s tapestry featured various scenes from the lives of the Olympians, depicting them as weak and full of flaws.

Athena admitted that Arachne's work was flawless, but she was outraged at Arachne's lack of respect towards the gods. She lost her temper and destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom; Arachne’s punishment for her offensive behaviour was severe. Athena cursed her and turned her into a spider, thus condemning her into a lifetime of weaving.  

The Sun and The Moon

Greetings!

In today’s mythology lesson, we’ll be talking about Apollo and Artemis, the twin offspring of Zeus and Leto; we have quite some things to cover, so let’s get started.

We’ve already established that Zeus had numerous affairs and offspring, right?

As soon as a girl stroke his fancy, he had had to have her; Leto was no exception to that rule.

Leto, the daughter of titans Coeus and Phoebe, was a very beautiful girl; at some point, she had caught Zeus’s attention, so naturally, he started pursuing her.

Leto kept rejecting his advances; she even transformed into a quail in order to avoid him. That didn’t faze Zeus of course; he, too, transformed into a quail and mated with her.

Like most of the divine escapades, this one too resulted into a pregnancy; when Hera found out that Leto was pregnant and Zeus was the father, she was enraged.

Instead of going after Zeus for impregnating Leto, she turned against Leto and banned her from giving birth on “terra firma”, meaning Leto could not give birth either on the mainland or any real island. And, in order to be completely certain that Leto would not be able to find a place to deliver her babies, she also sent Python after her.

What a lovely lady indeed!

Leto kept wandering and, finally she found refuge in the newly created floating island of Ortygia (later called Delos) and there, she gave birth to her children.

Artemis was born first, without giving Leto any birth-pains; Apollo’s birth was a different story though; Leto was exhausted and she went through a nine day labor and delivery, before Apollo was born; despite being only a newborn, myth has it that it was Artemis that assisted her mother in giving birth to Apollo.

As a thank you to Delos for providing shelter to Leto, Zeus secured it to the ocean, making it a real island.

Now, Leto was the impersonation of the Night, so both of her children were associated with the sky too; Apollo is associated with the sun and Artemis is associated with the moon.

Apollo was the god of light, truth and prophecy, healing, and the arts while Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls.

Apollo and Artemis through Eirini's eyes: young and beautiful (hmm that sounds like a soap opera...)
I may be a little biased (just a tiiiiiny bit :-p ), but I think they are remarkable!

Both of them were extremely good looking, and associated with youth and beauty. They were skilled archers (hence they were often depicted carrying a bow and arrows –gold for Apollo and silver for Artemis), and they both possessed the gift of healing.

Apollo was kind and just; he had a very clear idea of right and wrong. He was unable to tell a lie, yet he had the ability to use his charm to get his way. Sometimes he can be a bit vain too, but it’s only because he’s well aware of his superiority; he’s good looking, and multi-talented too; who can blame him?

Artemis was loyal, brave, strong and kind to those who deserved it; very much like Apollo, she had a very strong sense of right and wrong. Those who crossed her though had better watch out.

Despite their many similarities, there was a main difference between them.

Apollo, pretty much like their father, had numerous affairs and offspring, while Artemis had asked their father for eternal virginity; she was very protective of her purity, and gave grave punishment to any man attempting to dishonour her.

Apollo and Artemis had the best possible relationship (surprisingly, there’s no sibling rivalry between those two!) and remained close to each other forever. Naturally, It goes without saying that they cherished and respected their mother for all the trouble she went through for them and were always hard on those who insulted her.

February Babies

Greetings!

Today Eirini, my dear friend and amazing illustrator, has a birthday; so we’ll be talking all about her today! :-D

I am only joking of course; we’ll be talking about other stuff too, but I wanted to tease Eirini a bit first. (btw I hope you are still talking to me after pulling that joke :-p )

So, dearest, I hope this year is full to the brim with excitement (the good kind), creativity, happiness, laughter and lots of amazing moments!

I hope it turns out to be great!

Now, since we are on the topic of anniversaries (birthdays are an anniversary after all), today is also the 2nd “anniversary” of the beginning of our collaboration; two years ago I wrote the first piece for the Victorian project we are working on; and yes, I know it’s completely irrelevant but still, I am always excited about that project, so I am sharing! :D

Lastly, purely for entertainment’s sake, and since this team has two February babies, here are the basic personality traits for people born in February.

I still think each person is unique and it’s wrong to categorise people in any way, but still, it was fun to read so I am sharing; and if we want to be fair, we do have some (or a lot :-p ) of those traits.

So, according to the internet, us February people, we are:

-clever and intelligent

-temperamental

-quiet, shy and humble

-honest and loyal

-determined to reach goals

-rebellious when restricted

-too sensitive and easily hurt

-ambitious

-showing anger easily

-daring and stubborn

-sharp

-romantic on the inside not the outside

And we love:

-freedom

-abstract thinking

- …and reality too

-making friends (but apparently we are not good at showing it)

-entertainment and leisure

People who know us, are most welcome to comment on how accurate these are too! :)

And don’t worry, we’ll still be talking about the mythological stuff, but we are doing so on the weekend.

Ancient Greek Wedding Nights

Hi all!

Since it was Valentine’s Day on friday (who cares but still! :-p ), we thought we could try and write about something relevant to romance.

So, how about we play a little game today?

Imagine it’s your wedding night; you are a young maiden, let’s say about fifteen, and you are in your wedding chamber with your husband. Your husband is a man about ten years older than you, whom your father has picked for you and you’ve just met him only few hours before.

With us so far? Good.

Up until today you’ve never actually been outside your father’s house before, except for a few occasions only, such us religious ceremonies.

It was only the day before that you’ve cut off your and hair and you’ve offered your childhood clothing and toys to Artemis, in hopes she would ease your transition into your new life and womanhood.

So, you are a bit a stranger to the world; you are inexperienced, perhaps a bit naive too and quite probably terrified about the entire situation, because really, you have no clue about such matters, yet you are supposed to go to bed with a stranger and consummate your marriage.

But let’s kick things up a notch, yes?

One of your husband’s friends in standing guard right outside your door, while your friends are there too, singing songs that are meant to reassure you, the bride, about the entire situation really; and then of course they have to sing playful, obscene songs too.

How does that sound? Thrilling, no?

Well, welcome to ancient greek wedding nights.

What do wedding nights have to do with our myth though? Well, there’s a wedding night in our myth too, remember?

Well, while we were doing our planning, we realised that a wedding night implied sex too; and since we would be addressing sex (in a rather indirect way but still!), we would have to resolve a couple of other issues first.

The most important issue was Eros’s depiction. He is almost always depicted either as a chubby winged baby or a winged youngster.

L'Amour et Psyché, enfants (William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1890)

Psyché et l'Amour (Francois Gerard, 1798)

Those images didn’t sit well with us though. For us, Eros looked like a man from day one; young and playful and immature maybe, but always a grown-up.

Now, onto the next issue; as you’ve probably gathered already, girls were thrown into marriage having no clue about what to expect.

In the original version of the myth, and in some of the much later versions too, on their wedding night, Eros gives Psyche immeasurable pleasure (and trust me, they use some much more cringe worthy wording than ours). We've had a good laugh about it, but it made sense (sort of) since he’s the god of love and all that.

L'Amour et Psyché (François Édouard Picot, 1817)

Cupid and Psyche (Károly Brocky, 1850-55)

The thing is that Psyche could hear and feel Eros, so how come she’s never commented on his wings? Unless of course she never moved a muscle while they were in bed together, she must have felt them at some point; wasn't she surprised? She certainly couldn't think of it as natural, so, what's the deal?

Well, we could work with Psyche being a bit naïve; it’s all part of her charm. But she was far from stupid, so we had to give a solid explanation about why she never touched said wings.

I doubt that anyone would pay that much attention to that little detail, but that’s what you get when two perfectionists team up; you have to have a solid explanation about everything you do. Knowing there was a fallacy in the reasoning would drive us crazy at some point, even if noone ever questioned us about it! :-p

So after quite a lot of thinking, we came up with a solution; Eros simply didn’t have his wings on, whenever he was in bed with Psyche; they are an accessory of sorts, pretty much like his bow and arrows, that's why she never felt them.

What do you think? Convincing enough?

The Ruler Of The Sea

Greetings!

Today we are talking about Poseidon, so without further ado, let’s start talking about the ruler of the sea.

When Poseidon and his brothers, Zeus and Hades drew lots and shared the world, Poseidon got the sea; but he was also the gods of earthquakes, so whenever he was angered (and that happened quite often), he caused earthquakes, floods, storms, you name it.

Poseidon was one of the most temperamental gods of greek mythology; but his temperament was meant to represent the varying states of the sea and explain a number of natural phenomena, so it makes sense, no?

Of course, he wasn’t always angry; whenever he was placated, people did their best to keep him that way, otherwise no one would ever be able to cross the sea, resulting in no travel and no trade.

Naturally, as the ruler of the sea, he was well-respected too; not as respected as Zeus of course, but still quite respected. Poseidon was aware of his brother’s superiority too and he held a great deal of respect for him as well; that didn’t mean that the two of them always got along, but all brothers fight from time to time, and, gods or not, the same goes for them!

The family resemblance was strong with those two; they even looked quite similar; and yet so very different. While they are both depicted as sturdy, virile men, with long hair and beards, Poseidon does not have the same calm demeanour Zeus has.

So, here's Poseidon; temperamental is the right word for him! :-p 

Poseidon divided his time between Mount Olympus and his palace, which was placed in the depths of the sea, where he lived there with his wife Amphitrite. She was a nymph and Poseidon pursued her for quite some before she gave in and married him.

Having a wife didn’t stop Poseidon from having numerous affairs and fathering numerous offspring from said affairs too; he’s a lot like Zeus in that aspect! :-p

Unlike Zeus though, he doesn’t have to deal with jealous outbursts from his wife; Amphitrite is well aware that she’s always number one in Poseidon’s heart, so she sees no point in being jealous about his passing affairs.

Understanding Your Characters

I think we’ve already established how much we love this myth; with that said, it's time to take you on another behind the scenes tour. :-)

By the time we had started working on our version of the myth, we’ve had already done quite a lot of reading on all topics that related to the myth one way or another.

The thing is, that despite doing so, we had yet to fully understand some of our characters; one if particular actually: Psyche.

Even after editing the first draft and changing pretty much everything, we were still unable to relate to her; for two women, relating to the female protagonist, should be easy, not frustrating.

That got us thinking; if we were unable to relate to her, how were we supposed to do her justice when writing and depicting her? And most importantly, how were we supposed to make people see her as the great character she really is?

So naturally, we read some more; and talked a whole lot more. And then edited some parts again and rewrote her in a way that would (hopefully) make 21st century people relate to her; or understand her reasoning in the very least.

We didn’t change who Psyche is as a character; we liked her in the first place, so there was need for that. Her essence is still the same; we’ve only made certain that everybody would perceive her as the strong woman she is.

The point I am trying to make?

If you can’t relate to your character, no one else will.

Make sure you understand them –really understand them, and then let them find their own voice. If said voice is strong and articulate, they’ll write themselves in no time.

Oh, and be prepared to listen to them talking in your head 24/7; a bit annoying sometimes, but you get used to it! :-p

PS I know, another sad entry without any pictures...sorry about that!

Mums know best!

Hi all!

Long time no see! Not that a week is a terribly long time, but still; to be honest, I’ve missed having to plan for an entry! :-p

On the other hand though, we’ve all had the great joy of reading an entry by Eirini, which more than makes up for it! I was very excited to read about how and when she first got the idea, because believe it or not, I didn’t know either; so, Eirini, thanks for sharing! :-) 

Now, I believe it’s time for another short mythology lesson; today we’ll be talking about Demeter, the goddess of the Earth and harvest.

She’s also associated with Earth’s fertility, and fertility in general; because of that association, she was also considered a protector of married life and motherhood; young married people often visited her temples, seeking guidance.

Her most common depiction is that of an older woman, with soft expressions, calm and collected; an image strongly associated with maternal figures. Even her name suggests so, literally meaning “mother earth”.

A mum's many faces! :-p

As any mother though, she’s only calm and collected as long as no one harms her children.

She had only a handful of lovers, and mothered children from them all; the most well-known myth about Demeter as a mother is the one about the abduction of her daughter, Persephone, by Hades, King of the  Underworld, to his kingdom (fear not, they’ll have their own entry soon).

When Persephone disappeared, Demeter went searching for her; when she realised she wasn’t going to get her back the easy way, she decided to play dirty and put a stop to the earth’s produce of fruit, bringing famine down to the people, thus forcing Zeus to demand Persephone’s return.

Motherly love in all its’ glory!

Happy Birthday Myrto!!!..and a few other stuff..

Happy birthday to my amazing writter and friend Myrto!!
I'm not going to reveal how old she actually is but I wish that this year is great for her, full of surprizes-good ones- and creativity.

Well, since it is her birthday and she's preoccupied with her-not so secret-surprize party it came to me to update this post.

My first entry!Yay!
Well, I'm not so good in words or so fluent in english as Myrto is, but I'll try to do my best here, so, bear with me.


Ok, here it goes. I, as mentioned in earlier posts, am a great history and greek mythology freak. So, about four years ago, while I was working on an excavation at Dion, it hit me that I should try to draw one of my favourite myths, the one about Eros and Psyche. I didn't know Myrto yet, so it was nothing like official or had the prospect of turning anything into a book-that thought came a couple of years later, but I thought I could give it a try and draw the main heroine. It seems like she's come a long way, don't you think?

First sketch of Psyche ever!About 2009-10 (I'm not really sure)

 

Second attempt. 2010

The last time I tried to draw her,2013, I knew exactly what I wanted her to look. Thankfully Myrto liked her as well!

Until next time, thanks for watching!