A college assignment for my major - Illustration. Done in pen and ink, I decided to go with traditional media for this project. Painstakingly created, this was time-consuming but fun!
I enjoyed the research. Greek Mythology is rich with amazing stories to stimulate the imagination. I decided to create a style of my own which was both cartoonish and detailed at the same time. Each character and prop was created according to the mythology that I read. A few lines are given under each illustration, explaining the image so you can follow the entire journey that the soul takes after death.
Hope you find it as interesting and enjoyable as I did. Cheers!
In this illustration are portrayed Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, Persephone, his wife and Hecate, Persephone's assistant and a goddess in her own right.
Hades - represented as usually bearded, with the horn / scepter of plenty, rich with precious metals. He is stern, unpitying and cruel.
Persephone - a young innocent abducted by Hades, who could not leave the Underworld as she had accepted pomegranates from Hades (anyone who accepts food in the Underworld is doomed to stay there)
Hecate -a mysterious nature goddess associated with witchcraft and sorcery. Her torch guides the soul to the Underworld. She was honored above all and given a splendid gift of the earth and the unfruitful sea as well as honor in the starry heaven.
This illustration depicts Thanatos, the Greek personification of death taking the dead to the Underworld.
As people die, Hermes leads their souls to the underworld past the White Rock, Gates of the Sun and the Land of Dreams, until they reach the fields of Asphodel where spirits dwell, living the flavorless existence of a shadow or phantom. This is not a place of punishment, but there is no pleasure and the mind is confused and oblivious.
Hermes is the cleverest of the Olympian Gods, and being the fastest of them all, he is a messenger to all Gods as well as a guide for the dead to go to the Underworld.
The souls descending to Hades carry a coin under their tongues in order to pay Charon, the ferryman who ferries them across the River Styx, the River of Hate. The water of the Styx dissolves glass, crystal and all stone objects known to man. The water corrupts horn and bone, iron, bronze, tin and silver.
Charon is the son of Styx, dressed in a dirty cloak, with a bushy beard. He is appalling and filthy, old and insatiable.
Across the river, guarding the gates of Hades is Cerberus (Kerberos), a serpent-tailed three headed hell hound. His task is to guard the gates of Hades' realm to make sure no ghosts escape. He is a pitiless, flesh eating watchdog stationed by the River Styx from where he would keep the living from entering the land of the dead.
At the plain of judgement sit the the three judges of the dead - Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus. They were originally mortal men who were granted their position after death as a reward for the establishment of law on Earth. Aeacus is the guardian of the keys of the Haides. Minos holds a golden sceptre and delivers judgement among the dead. He was the judge of the final vote. Here at the dividing road are two ways, one to the Isle of Blest (Elysium) where good souls receive their awards, the other road leads to Tartarus where the sinners are sent to receive their befitting punishment.
Elysium is the Isle of the Blest, a happy place which has a sun and stars of its own. The souls in Elysium cannot be grasped and are like phantoms. Those who dwell in Elysium exercise upon grassy playing fields. Some dance, others sing or chant poems. They wander in luminous plains and green valleys.
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