J'accuse! Myself that is, of
half-assing this original drawing. I was quite obsessed with Greek
gods when I was a kid. I don't know why exactly. I guess I liked that
there were so many female gods and that every god had his/her own job
to do. In a way it was like being a fan of a group like the Avengers
or the Superfriends. I enjoyed their crazy god adventures.
So I don't know what happened back in
the day when I went to draw these pictures because I didn't add any
of the symbols associated with the individuals I was depicting. To
redraw this one, and the others for the future, I knew that was going
to have to incorporate the actual symbology that the god is
associated with. So let's learn about Demeter.
Poor sad Demeter. Though she has a lot
going on I decided to play up a few specific things. One, her morose
expression has to do with the grief over her missing daughter,
Persephone. Long story short, when the god of the underworld (Hades)
kidnapped Persephone she messed up and ate some of his forbidden
pomegranate seeds while down in the underworld. Then when Demeter
came to strike a deal to get her daughter back she had to compromise
with Ole Hades due to those transgressions. Kids, amirite? This in
turn created seasons- due to the compromise everything's great when
Persephone is home with Demeter (Spring, Summer), but times are hard
when she has to go back and stay with Hades (Autumn, Winter). It's
kind of a like a joint custody situation.
Anyway, so Demeter gets bummed about
that. The other thing that is her big deal is she's all about that
sweet, sweet wheat. Demeter is the mother of agriculture,
specifically grains and such. She also has something to do with the
afterlife. So basically she gave people like me a reason to live
(carbs) and people unlike me a reason to live (the promise of life
after death).
So other than those two signifiers I
also gave her a warm glow because another symbol she is often
depicted with is a torch. Though she is described by Homer in The
Odyssey as a blonde woman I tried to make her look more Greek
because, really, Homer ain't gonna tell me what this god is supposed
to look like.
As a final note, I just want to show
anyone reading this
definitive
proof that those Rick Riordon Lightning Thief books based on the
Greek gods were garbage as I always suspected (from this Wikipedia
page): “Demeter
makes very brief appearances in the Percy Jackson series by Rick
Riordon. She is portrayed as a bitter mother-in-law, upset that her
daughter is married to the God of the Underworld opposed to the God
of Law or Medicine.”
Gross.
Art
tips: Drawing fruit is fun. Draw a fruit today!
Demeter's art card can be found here.