recent art i did for my Literature of Nero class. scene from Seneca's Oedipus, where Tiresias and Creon summon Laius' ghost from Hades in a nearby wood. i haven't drawn in awhile so i was really happy with how this came out! write up i did for class/more information under the cut.
“[W]ater grimly pools, of light and sunshine ignorant, and numb with chill perpetual… When the aged priest set foot inside the grove, there was no delay: the place provided instant night.” I think this description of the sky changing is a beautiful introduction to the ritual we are about to witness, just how extreme it is. I chose not to focus on the large, sacrificial pyre and the tree near it but rather the product of it. “Next, he summons up the ghosts and you, king of the ghosts, and the keeper of the gates of Lethe’s lake… ‘They have heard me!” said the priest. ‘The words I uttered are fulfilled! Dark Chaos is breached: hell’s population is granted passage to the upper world.’”
“…[E]arth itself, to make a pathway for the dead, resounded as its structure cracked; or else three-headed Cerberus, enraged and furious, shook his heavy chains.” I think it’s important that Cerberus is mentioned here, as he is the guard to the Underworld… even if the Underworld’s gates somehow end up in a forest near Thebes. “Suddenly the earth yawns wide: it opened dup into a boundless gulf.” I find it interesting how when these portals to the Underworld are opened, it’s described as the ground gaping opening. This is a description common to the myth of the kidnapping of Persephone/Kore, where Hades splits the earth wide open to swallow up his stolen maiden. I think my favorite line of this entire scene though however isn’t base purely on the horrific descriptions, but simply some passing reactionary comments from Creon. “With my own eyes I saw the pallid gods among the shades, with my own eyes. The stagnant lakes and quintessential night. My frozen blood congealed and clogged my veins… My courage failed… Undaunted, bold from lack of sight, [Tiresias] summons up the bloodless throng of cruel Dis.” I love this sentence and how Tiresias’ entire character is that his blindness is not a weakness, but his greatest strength. It gave him his foresight, and now it guards him from the true horrors of Hades breaking out of the earth… at his doing. It makes Creon ill, and Laius hasn’t showed up to tell him the truly chilling news. It’s a beautiful scene and depiction on Seneca’s part.
Now, onto why I chose the tarot card I did and the imagery I included. I felt Judgement was very representative of Tiresias, whether you interpret it traditionally or reversed. Judgement traditionally depicts rapture-like imagery, people meeting deliverance from the divine and readily accepting it because you cannot deny Judgement; Oedipus can try as he may to deny the Oracle, run away as much as he wants, but he does fulfill his prophecy. I think in Oedipus Rex, Tiresias represents this even better, as Oedipus is even more nonsensical there and receives a secondary scolding turned prophecy from him. Reversed, Judgement is representative of literally “ignoring the call.” Tiresias says as much to Oedipus in Oedipus Rex, “You mock my blindness… But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind: You can not see the wretchedness of your life…But the double lash of your parents’ cruse will whip you and out of this land someday, with only night upon your precious eyes.”
I chose to remain close the imagery depicted in Seneca’s description, but also added in traditional Hellenic polytheistic religious elements and spiritual elements associated with tarot. Laius rests above all as a spirit and the divine, ascended from his passing, his hands pointed towards the heavens as he gives divine information. The stars surround him, and are also reflected in Tiresias’ eyes, a symbol of spirituality, faith, power and the divine. Tiresias’ hands raise to Laius as he now waits for his answer. Creon, the only one here who would feel the full Chthonic weight of the situation, sulks and points downwards, and covers his eyes, unable to witness what is at hand and blocking himself off from the divine. Golden imagery is littered across Tiresias to represent Apollo, seen most in the drachmas he has tied into his beard. Within tarot, “pentacles” or coins are representative of all kinds of prosperity.