"In the future no man will slay his fellow, the earth will be radiant, the human race will love. It will come, citizens, that day when all shall be concord, harmony, light, joy, and life; it will come, and it is so that it may come that we are going to die.” (Les Misèrables 4.12.8, Victor Hugo, trans. Hapgood) 4.12.8)
A mosaic that I definitely didn't start last Barricade Day for Barricade Day 2024!
This is the lineart for the piece I mentioned in the previous post. I even got a textbook out to figure out the cothing and I relied heavily on the work of Erin Sharp (linked under the cut) for references on how the garments depicted in the artwork we have would work. Colouring this is my next task but I worked really hard on this lineart and I'm really happy with it
historical clothing, cosplay, and beautiful acts of whimsy
I have posted it seperately as well, but here is an expanded version of Phaedros' seal, depicting Persephone and Hades in the art style of extant Mycenaean seals
I wanna explain some of the details from this because I put a lot of effort into them! Put under the cut as its very long!
Dionysus:
So, for starters, Dionysus is wearing traditional women's clothes because the book states "witches are always women". So I wanted to lean into that and go with fully women's clothing - especially because a lot of the myths around Dionysus suggests he plays with gender a lot. I gave him earrings copied from an extant pair and topped everything off with his canonical green hair ribbon (which will be green once coloured)
The sun rosette marking on his forehead are often seen on Mycenaean/Minoan women, and a detail that I came across was that the sun is always portrayed as having 16 rays coming off it, so I used that for the number of dots but also the sun on the seal. I've given him some tattoos as part of the lineart but the rest will be done as part of the colouring. I used two different brushes for the trim on his dress - this would have been woven not embroidered. The brushes were said to be taken specifically from Minoan/Mycanaean patterns.
Also, I made his irises slightly cat-like to reference the fact that he is, indeed, a god and a particularly ancient/inhuman one at that. I picked cat-like due to his leopard.
Phaidros:
For Phaidros, I can't remember whether or not he had a beard, but he's stated to be older and a well respected soldier. In the Iliad, the older soldiers are all bearded, and while most men depicted on seals/ paintings are unbearded, they're shown as active soldiers, whereas Phaidros is mainly just a trainer. Of course, I had to give him his iconic long hair.
Trying to figure out his facial scar was a bit tricky, as it had to be big enough to reflect how obvious it's described as being in the book, but the book doesn't suggest that it affects his eyes or mouth in any way, so I tried to balance those two things.
Mycenaean men are depicted wearing two different outfits; just kilts and then simple tunics. The kilts are often seen on men who seem to be younger/ fighting, so I picked a tunic to go along with his beard to indicate his age. The trim is technically supposed to be one single piece for hem, as the garment is basically just a rectangle with armholes, so it's one piece of trim that goes along the top edge, however I wanted there to be a bit more visual interest. The meander and wave patterns are from the Geometric period, which was the next period after the Mycenaean period, after the Bronze Age Collapse, but Phaidros is a more down-to-earth character, so I picked something simpler for him. I picked the wave pattern to link to his time as a sailor and specifically when he first met Dionysus.
The seal and the bee:
I've spoken about the seal above, but I honestly really love the symbolism of how at least this version of Persephone picked the underworld and stuck to her decision, even though it would force her to stay in the underworld, becoming something she was never supposed to be. I also like how it kinda links to Phaidros' passive suicidality and how in the end, he makes the opposite decision and chooses to stay in the light.
I gave Persephone the traditional dress seen on many Mycenaean and Minoan women. For Hades, I wanted to incorporate his helm as a prominent element, so I chose a Bronze Age Horned Helmet, which weren't really Greek but they were worn within the area of the Amber Road, which we do know that Mycenaean Thebes did have access to. So, it wasn't totally unfamiliar. I gave Persephone the pomegranate to represent her choice to stay in the underworld and gave Hades a stance that's trying to reflect him offering to take her away.
The bee charm is based on a very famous Mycenaean pendant that depicts two bees/wasps. I kept to one as that's how it's described in the book. I had to make it big enough to be readable at phone size, I kinda wish I'd made the seal bigger too