Tagamemnon - Tumblr Posts

DEMETER

“I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess —of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus (Hades) rapt away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.”  

               (-Homeric Hymn, translated by H.G. Evelyn white)

DEMETER (duh-MEET-er), is the goddess of harvest, agriculture, fertility, and grains. She is the central figure in the mystery Cult of Eleusis,where citizens made a pilgrimage to Eleusis to partake in a festival and initiation ritual tied to the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone’s abduction by Hades into the underworld. This ceremony would initiate a citizen, provide some spiritual insight, thereby guaranteeing a better position in the afterlife. In my depiction, Demeter holds out her torch, in search of her abducted daughter, and an ear of wheat grain to symbolize her role in agriculture. Tto the left we have the main players of the missing daughter myth. A misty Hades behind, and Persephone in front, with triple-bodied Hekatebeside, who helped Demeter find her daughter, and became Persephone's attendant in the underworld. On the right we have a woman pouring libations to help the wheat grow, then Demeter holding the cut grain, symbolizing the cyclical nature, and transience of life.

Unfortunately, as the crime of revealing the inner secret ceremony was punishable by death, we can't know for sure what took place in the inner sanctum during the main ritual. What we do know is that something was “drunk” and something was "seen". Many believe that the Kykeon drink offered to initiates would produce a psychotropic, hallucinatory effect. Perhaps the drink was tainted with ergot (rotten barley fungi), or maybe mushrooms. Apparently, the ritual had three stages, (mirroring Persephone’s underworld journey); the descent, the search, and the ascent. Some believe the final act shown to the initiate was the cutting of an ear of grain, to symbolize the cyclical death and rebirth of nature. 

Want to own my Illustrated Greek myth book jam packed with over 130 illustrations like this? Support my book kickstarter "Lockett Illustrated: Greek Gods and Heroes" coming in early 2024. check my bio LINKTREE

I was reading the Iliad and—

Bro was making all the enemies.

I love Odysseus’ response to him.

Odysseus literally said that if he doesn’t fight and but Thersites in his place then he would refuse to be called Telemachus’ father. That’s crazy. “So help me my head will fall of my body.”

this was actually quite fun to do I love them

don't mind the shading I gave up. I'm hungry and stressed out goodbye

this was actually quite fun to do I love them

don't mind the shading I gave up. I'm hungry and stressed out goodbye

I experimented a bit with the colours by creating a set colour palette in advance (similarly to how you would pre-mix colours in traditional art) and I'm not sure how to feel about the end result. It's certainly.....a lot more....green....than most of my work...

Motive-wise I based this illustration on the mythological figure of Kirke (Or Circe?? Idk how to properly anglicize her name), specifically her appearance in the Odyssey, as referenced by the pig in the background. But it's been a while since I read that particular part of the Odyssey, so there might be a couple inaccuracies to be found.

I am slowly getting dragged back into that weird Greek mythology phase I had between age 7 and 13, not that I mind tho. So here, have this little illustration of Perseus slaying the Gorgon Medusa. I went for a slightly more 'illustrative' style than usual, with 'clean' lineart and cellshading, although I was a tad bit too lazy to shade everything. But it kind of works I guess...

As previously mentioned, I am kinda going through a Greek Mythology Phase™ right now, which led me to creating this painting depicting Klytaimnestra after the murder of her husband, Agamemnon. The snake is in reference to a dream she had, in which she gave birth to and nursed a venomous snake/dragon instead of a child, which is seen as a prophecy of her death at the hands of her own son, Orestes.

I decided to do a bit of research into historical Mycenaean Greek dress, seeing as the Epic Cycle and the events directly thereafter are most likely set in the mid to late Bronze Age and as such the style of clothing and architecture would differ considerably from that of the later Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Periods that is often associated with Greco-Roman mythology.

Then again, I'm not a Historian, Classicist, or anything of the sort, I'm just some random sixteen year old with too much free time on their hands, so I make no promises of accuracy. There are also certain elements that I deliberately left inaccurate, either because it didn't fit the colour scheme, such as the fresco on the wall, which should have had several yellow elements that just looked a bit muddy when I tried to add them, or because I was too lazy to paint them in intricate detail, such as the skirt, which should consist of several layers of different fabric atop each other, but I didn't want to paint all that.

Said skirt is inspired by John Colliers painting also depicting Klytaimnestra after the murder.

Anyway, sorry for the long, nerdy ramble of text, I hope you like the painting and have a nice day :)

(a couple of close ups in case Tumblr fries the quality)

Achilles is quite annoying until that big character development in book 24 of the Iliad, but that kinda makes him interesting to paint.

This originally started out as a lighting study, hence the composition and colour scheme being a bit sparse. Also couldn't find that many depictions of male Mycenaean clothing, so most of what he's wearing is just guesswork.

*

*

*

(Close-up time!)

🌾 Demeter and Persephone 🌾

I guess springtime got me thinking about the two of them, which is kind of ironic since this painting is set just before Persephone's departure into the underworld.

I also thought the mother-daughter relationship and Demeter's grief at her daughter's marriage/ metaphorical "death" (as described in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter) would be interesting to explore artistically.

(Close-ups)

☀️Far-Shooting Apollo☀️

The idea for this arose a while (and by while I mean about 4 months) ago, when we were reading the Exposition of the Iliad in class.

I wanted to depict the scene in Book one where Apollo sends a plague to afflict the Acheans by shooting first the mules and dogs, then the men, after Agamemnon denied the release of the priest-daughter Chryseis to her father.

*

*

*

(Close-Up Time!)

„Oedipus coming upon the dead body of his mother Iocaste” After first watching the 1957 production by Tyrone Guthrie and subsequently reading a translation of the play as written by Sophocles, I felt like painting something related to this story and the scene of Oedipus seeing his mothers corpse (although not outright shown in the actual play, but relayed by a messenger) struck me as particularly affecting.

*

*

*

Close-Ups:

+ Bonus Snake:

Daphne, the Nymph, amidst her (infamous) transformation into a laurel tree 🌿

(Close Ups:)

Orestes and Erinys

A bit over a month ago I had to give a short presentation on Aischylos‘ Oresteia as part of my coursework and reading it gave me the idea for this piece.

Specifically, it is referencing lines 1057-1058 of the Libation Bearers, where, for the first time, Orestes is seeing the Furies.

(The text does explicitly describe blood dripping from the Furies’ eyes, but when I noticed this, the idea of a blood-covered face had already developed, and I chose to keep it. Also I didn’t have the time or patience to paint more than two figures, so I suppose you can imagine the rest of the Furies somewhere off-screen or something)

*

*

*

(Close-ups)

Thetis with the arms of Achilles

I saw several mosaics depicting this motive and decided to try my hand at it as well.

Also, I just find Thetis to be quite interesting as a character. There’s gotta be something fundamentally Tragic about raising a child, knowing that he will most likely die very young.

*

*

*

(Close-Ups)

well fuck that hurt like a bitch

Thinking about Agamemnon sacrificing his teenage daughter in order to go to war. Thinking about Odysseus trying to avoid going to war but when the choice was to kill his infant son or to go to war he chose the war. Thinking about how upon the death of Achilles, Odysseus recruited Achilles's teenage son Neoptolemus to join the war. About Odysseus or sometimes it's Neoptolemus throwing Hector's infant son off the battlements to his death. About Achilles's ghost demanding the sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena before the Greeks can sail home from Troy and when Hecuba begged Odysseus to spare Polyxena he said no, I want to go home, we're going to kill her. Thinking about how the only one of the Greek generals opposing Polyxena's sacrifice was Agamemnon. How Odysseus never wanted to be here but he will inflict the pain he wanted to avoid on others out of his duty to the other Greek soldiers. How Agamemnon, leader of the Greek soldiers, is so, so tired of sacrificing children to this war. How it happens anyway.

In certain versions of the myth, Clytemnestra and Helen are twins, born from the same egg. This is a feature we see semi-often in myth called Heteropaternal superfecundation - twins from the same womb but by different fathers. Clytemnestra by Leda and Tyndarius, Helen by Leda and Zeus.

The thing is though - Helen is the demigod because of her divine beauty and place within the narrative, but are we sure it was her who Zeus fathered?

Clytemnestra, too clever, in love with authority, commanding. When Clytemnestra killed her husband, no divine judgement rebuked her, almost like Medea being whisked off by her god grandfather after the murders. When Clytemnestra is killed, the furies gather to avenge her where they didn't for Agamemnon.

What if the furies were looking after one of their own? Recognizing divine authority? That is to say,

What if it wasn't Helen?

clytemnestra!!

Iphigenia...

to live up to a legacy

(inspired by @ellilyre 's post on Neoptolemus and Diomedes)

guess what. i posted poetry on ao3. my first contribution to ancient greek religion and lore fandom is here, baby. @scarlet-sam-chaos nt as good as i wanted, but given the circumstances, *shrugs*, i'd call it not bad.