Deity-A-Day 7 | Apollo

Deity-A-Day 7 | Apollo

The Greek God of the Sun. Son of the Gods. The good kid!

His twin sister is Artemis. He is also the god of music, plays a golden lyre, of light and truth, who can not tell a lie. One of Apollo’s more important daily tasks is to harness his chariot with four horses and drive the sun across the sky. (WISH HE WAS DOING THAT OVER ARKANSAS TONIGHT!) He is famous for his oracle at Delphi and people use to travel to it from all over the Greek world to divine the future.

Most images of Apollo have him wearing a laurel wreath. I thought it would be cool to go all 80s and give him a headband, but ended up with a small band instead. Also, I thought maybe have him wearing a pendant, or badge or something of a laurel leaf in honor of his love, Daphne.

Oh man! Have you seen the paintings of Apollo holding the tree nymph? I found a version of the story that is CRAZY. Talk about a Jerry Springer episode! So, check this out…

Apollo, as with Zeus his father, had many love affairs with goddesses and mortals. Like father, like son, right?

Apollo’s infatuation for the nymph Daphne, which had been invoked by the young god of love Eros (Aphrodites’ son). You see, Apollo had mocked little Eros saying his archery skills were pathetic (nothing like a cocky daddy’s boy to piss you off). So little Eros (also known as Cupid, I believe) shot Apollo with a arrow of love to have him fall madly in love with Daphne. Daphne was the beautiful daughter of a river god. Eros shot HER with an arrow of revulsion to Apollo. So there Apollo was, chasing a woman who was fleeing from him in fear.

To escape from Apollo’s insistent behavior, she fled to the mountains, but the persistent Apollo followed her. Annoyed by this, she asked the river god Peneus for help, which he did.

As soon as Apollo approached Daphne, he tried to embrace her, but when he stretched out his arms she transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo, distraught by what had happened, made the laurel his sacred tree.

Okay…and this is the part that got me…He cut her up into pieces and made a crown to honor her.

CUT.HER.INTO.PIECES.

EGADS!

Okay, so my drawing has no character. I have set a 15 minute limit for drawing and I had two sketches of Ares and one of Aphrodite that looked terrible. So I whipped Apollo out below.

I’ll do better tomorrow.

For more on Apollo, click here!

Deity-A-Day 6 | Demeter

Deity-A-Day 6 | Demeter

For my first Goddess, I decided to go with a less-than-obvious one from Greek Mythology, Demeter.

Demeter was the Goddess of Agriculture and the Seasons.

Mythology says that Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, was abducted by Hades to be his bride in the Underworld. Demeter wandered the earth looking for her daughter and the seasons were messed up for awhile. Zeus finally sent Hermes to bring Persephone back to the surface so Demeter would tend to the seasons again. But because Persephone had eaten food in the Underworld, she had to return there 3 or 4 months of the year, at which time Demeter weeps for her daughter and ignores the earth.

This accounts for the changes in the seasons.

I love mythology. AND I promise to get better at women drawings.

For Demeter, I pictured her standing in a field of wheat. However, I simply made her hair appear as wheat. Kinda. Sorta.

More Demeter information at wikipedia.org!

Deity-A-Day 5 | Hephestus

Deity-A-Day 5 | Hephestus

I have a special affinity for Hephestus, Blacksmith of the Gods. You see, in Roman mythology, his name was Vulcan. LONG before a pointy eared alien played by Leonard Nimoy OR Zachary Quinto, Vulcan was a cool dude.

Although he was a gruff, unattractive, deformed god, he still got to hook up with Aphrodite as husband and wife! THAT’S RIGHT! The goddess of beauty and the god of the forge. And while Aphrodite did cheat on poor Hephestus with Ares, Festus got the last laugh when he set a trap for the lovers in a net and dragged them both, naked, to be judged to Mount Olympus in front of all the other gods.

Although the Greeks viewed the God of Volcanos him as grotesque due to his bum leg, Hephestus made the cool stuff that the gods used such as armor, weapons, and girdles all imbued with magical abilities.

I drew Hephestus as a scarred up, muscular, rough-looking dude with a balding head and short facial hair. Afterall, working with all that fire, it seems like you’d want the least amount of stuff to burn as possible.

Here’s more about the God of Craftmanship…

Deity-A-Day 4 | Dionysus God of Wine

Deity-A-Day 4 | Dionysus God of Wine

In hindsight, I should have started on January 1 with Dionysus, the God of Wine and Hedonism. But since I didn’t get schnockered on New Year’s Eve, I had no hangover on New Year’s Day to give me that inspiration.

As a god goes, this one is a lot of fun. Not only the god of wine, but of ritual madness and ecstasy. According to some sources, he entered into the Greek mythology late but is still considered one of the 12 rulers of Olympus. Many jokes may ensue when you read about Dionysus. In Roman mythology he was named Bacchus.

One entry I found interesting was he was the God of Liberation as in, liberating people from their inhibitions and one’s normal self through music, wine and dance. Read more about Dionysus here.

My sketch is not entirely original. My research found references to the god being rather uni-sexual with traits of both a man and woman…or rather a ‘womanish man.’ AND I found out that Centaurs and Satyrs loved to party with Dionysus.

Fifteen minutes doesn’t give me enough time to draw an entire orgy, so your stuck with a pudgy, drunken face.

See you tomorrow!

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Deity-A-Day 3 | Hades

Deity-A-Day 3 | Hades

Hades, Ruler of the Underworld. Another of the Greek gods.

Now, personally, I think Hades has gotten a bad rep.

Hades was another brother of Zeus and drew the lot of the underworld. Contrary to popular belief, Hades is NOT the devil, nor is he the god of Death, Thantos. He simply is the manager of the underworld and is very greedy about getting as many into his realm as possible…and never letting them leave.

Hades is also the god of wealth because all the precious metals are underground.

Hades was said to have a helmet that rendered him invisible, his pet dog was the three-headed Cerebus, and he carries a groovy scepter.

I view Hades as a skinny scary dude with bad halitosis and some funky skin. He was shunned by the other gods and people never spoke his name for fear of getting his unwanted attention. I did a sketch of a little skinny dude in oversized armor feeding a huge three-headed dog, but I am learning how to draw animals better and may share some other time.

Want to know even more? Check out the Wikipedia entry.

Deity-A-Day 2 | Poseidon

Deity-A-Day 2 | Poseidon

Day 2 of the 2010 Challenge and I’m continuing with the Greek Pantheon with Poseidon.

It was also brought to my attention that I should do a little more than just say their name and post a drawing (great idea, Christi!). So I’ll tell you just a tad about Poseidon.

Poseidon was one of the brother’s of Zeus (king of the gods) and when Earth was divided among the brothers, Zeus ruled the land and air, Hades ruled the underworld, and Poseidon drew the oceans and seas as his domain. A pretty big domain at that! What I found interesting is that he was also known as the God of Earthquakes AND God of Horses! Apparently, seafarers would sacrifice horses to Poseidon to ensure safe sailing.

Poseidon was very moody. Thus, new lands could spring up from the ocean (undiscovered islands), as well as tempests and tidal waves.

Doing these creative ‘pieces’ in 15 minutes IS a challenge. I’m STUNNED by the quality of other people’s posts, though I will claim a bit out of practice in my drawing skills of late.

My Poseidon is a cross between an old salt and a Jimmy Buffet character drinking margaritas. Suntanned. Sea-shells for jewelry and clothing apparatus. And the mustache a kind-of walrus look, with a stringy beard of sea-weed. Not to mention the trident tattoo.

The trident is a symbol of Poseidon.

See you tomorrow!