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I love when I get to wear my spring/autumn jacket and when the first flowers show up like bright splashes of color in all the greyness. ^^

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Queen of the Dead part 2, 64

I'm really not good at drawing fight scenes. Luckily, this will be a short one.

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Oh, what a nice surprise to wake up to! Thank you! I love it! <3 <3 <3

I’ve been catching up on @theia-mania-comics by @a-gnosis and it’s been a delight !! I decided to redraw an old fanart I did of her Dionysus!! Still one of my fav characters :))

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happy spring everyone! also I forgot to mention new epiosde is up on webtoon and tapas! also an ad epiosde too so it's technically 2

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an idea for a story greek gods wake up in the world, but not like they lived until the 21st century, they literally wake up out of nowhere here

That could be an interesting story, but I actually think it's more fun to work with ancient/historical settings in my comics than with modern ones. I would be less interested to place the Norse gods in modern Scandinavia as well, even if I as Swedish probably would do a better job with that than doing a story about Greek gods in modern Greece.

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Persephone and crocuses. A warm-up drawing that went a bit overboard since I really like crocuses (and Persephone).

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I like the fact you made Demeter an Ethical non- monogomeus (ENM) as a was to be between Hestia’s acesexuality and Hera’s monogamy

Thanks! I like to have some variation in sexual orientation among the characters, even if the source material sometimes makes it a bit difficult without some creative liberties. ^^

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Queen of the Dead part 2, 63

For the pose in the second panel I have used the Artemision Bronze, a sculpture that is thought to represent either Zeus or Poseidon, dated to c. 460 BCE.

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Hi! I hope you're having a lovely time! I was wondering if you could help me locate a source that has something to say regarding Demeter attempting to cross over into the underworld when Persephone was abducted or not being able/willing to do so. I could swear I read something to that effect on your beautiful blog ages ago, but try as I might I can't find it. Thank you and I love your art!

Hi! There is an article on jstor, ”Vergil, Georgics I 36-39 and the Barcelona Alcestis (P.Barc. Inv. No. 158-161) 62-65: Demeter in the Underworld” by Geoffrey Harrison and Dirk Obbink, that discusses the tradition in which Demeter descended to the Underworld to retrieve Persephone. This version of the Persephone myth has not survived, we have only references to it in other ancient texts. The article by Harrison and Obbink lists the sources that make explicit mentions of the myth and passages that may allude to it. Unfortunately the sources are only cited in Greek or Latin (since the article is written by and for Classic scholars who usually know ancient Greek and Latin). One of the sources is Orphic Hymn 41 (translated by Athanassakis):

…weary from searching, weary from wandering far and wide, you once ended your fast in the valley of Eleusis, you came to Hades for noble Persephone. Your guide was the innocent child of Dysaules, who brought the news of pure Chthonic Zeus' holy union…

Here we have to keep in mind that in the Orphic version of the story Demeter didn't learn what had happened to Persephone until she came to Eleusis. The sons of Baubo and Dysaules, Triptolemos and Eubouleus, had been witnesses to the abduction. They told Demeter what they had seen and it seems like Demeter went straight to the Underworld afterwards, possibly accompanied by Eubouleus (Athanassakis finds it most likely that he is the "child of Dysaules" mentioned in the hymn).

Hyginus' Fabulae 251 (translated by Mary Grant) also mentions Demeter's descent, but without any details:

"THOSE WHO, BY PERMISSION OF THE PARCAE, RETURNED FROM THE LOWER WORLD: Ceres, seeking Proserpine, her daughter."

As for the idea that there is a barrier between the upper world and the Underworld that Demeter can't cross, which is implied in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it is discussed in "Concerning the Homeric Hymn to Demeter" by Jean Rudhardt (one of the essays in the book The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretative Essays). It's also mentioned in The Politics of Olympus by Jenny Strauss Clay, and Greek Myths and Mesopotamia by Charles Penglase.

… "the Hymn makes clear that the dead will never escape from their empire. If the Hymn coincides with tradition on this point, it reveals something else that, although less immediately evident, is crucial: with one exception, gods cannot cross the infernal barrier. Unless we accept this impermeability, the myth of Demeter, Hades, and Persephone is incomprehensible. No marriage in all of Greek mythology provokes a drama like the one of Hades and Persephone. Marriage does not tear away a young wife from her mother in this manner. Normal divine marriage do not separate them definitely. In the world above, wherever they may reside, gods are accessible to one another as much as they want to be. If Demeter, if Persephone could cross the infernal barrier, marriage with Hades, like other divine marriages, would not cause the crisis narrated in the Eleusinian hymn (Rudhardt)."

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Queen of the Dead part 2, 62

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Spring in Athens 2016. The top photo is me standing on the Areopagus hill. The end of March felt like a nice time to visit Greece (since I was there to visit archaeological sites and get a feel for the landscape, not for sun and bath). It was like early May in Sweden. Very pleasant.

It’s this season I imagine in my comic Anthesteria, though I know that the real Anthesteria was celebrated one month earlier.

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Inktober 15: The Two Goddesses.

So then all day long, being one in spirit, they warmed each other’s hearts and minds in many ways with loving embraces, and an end to sorrow came for their hearts, as they took joys from each other and gave in return.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis.

“Demeter’s origin as a grain goddess must lie in the Neolithic period with the advent of agriculture. Her name contains the Greek word for “mother”, but whether the initial syllable means “earth”, “grain”, or something else has long been debated. Homer had little interest in Demeter and none in her relationship with Kore (the Maiden), though Persephone appears in epic poetry as the bride of Hades. The queen of the dead (Attic Pherephatta) has a non-Greek name and must have been in origin a deity separate from Demeter’s daughter. Even after the two were firmly and inextricably identified, they were often paradoxically represented in cult as two distinct personages. Eleusinian iconography and terminology, for example, juxtaposed Thea, the underworld goddess, with Kore, the daughter. The Greeks avoided pronouncing or inscribing the ominous name Persephone in cult contexts, replacing it with Kore or other euphemisms, though such caution was less often exercised by the poets. Demeter and Kore were frequently worshiped together under such names as the Two Goddesses, the Thesmophoroi, or the Great Goddesses.“

Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide by Jennifer Larson.

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But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and mortal men.

Demeter to Persephone, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by H G Evelyn-White.

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Queen of the Dead part 2, 61

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I usually don't give a crap about Melodifestivalen and Eurovision, but everybody was talking about Sweden's song "Bara Bada Bastu", so I just had to see what the hype was about. And now the song is stuck in my head, too. Feels like Sweden has just sent polished, generic pop songs without personality the last twenty years, so it is nice that we went for something more fun and unique this year. Might be the first time since the 80s that I actually like our contribution to Eurovision. All it took was three Swedish-speaking Finns singing about how nice it is to have a sauna. XD

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… and narcissus, which Gaia, pleasing the All-receiver, made blossom there, by the will of Zeus, for a girl with a flower’s beauty.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis.