Persephone//{NSFW warning on some images} Rewards Here

Dread Persephone, 

Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Nature, Spring, and Death.   

The story most often told about Persephone, is that she was out one afternoon playing and wandered away out of sight of her mother. Hades, the God of the Underworld, came and kidnapped her. Demeter was distraught at the loss of her daughter, and travelled the world searching everywhere for her, weeping bitter tears. Because of her sadness, winter came, and continued so long that all the people began to starve.

The people prayed to Zeus and begged him for mercy. Zeus heard their cries and forced Hades to give Demeter back her little daughter. And Hades did, but not before Persephone ate some seeds from a pomegranate. Some say that Hades tricked Persephone into eating the fruit. Some say she reached out and plucked it as her mother was leading her out of hell. Because Persephone had eaten the seeds, she was bound to return to the Underworld. But because she ate only a little and not the entire fruit, her imprisonment was not eternal - for three seasons a year, she could return to her mother and live above ground.

Of course there have been many re-imaginings of the story of her abduction now.  Lore Olympus being the most famous at the moment.  And I adore lore olympus!  

But for this piece, what what really interested me about Persephone isn't necessarily  the events of her abduction or her transition to becoming Queen of the underworld but rather how in later Mythology she is depicted as a powerful Goddess of the dead, sometimes feared even more then Hades himself!  

In fact, in the most ancient layer of myth, Persephone's name means "She Who Destroys The Light." She may have been known as the powerful Goddess of the Underworld long before anyone knew of Hades, which I find fascinating.  

So for this artwork I wanted to depict her as someone who is confident in her own power and dominion while including symbols of her story, like the dead, plants, flowers, antlers(apparently deer are one of her symbols), and the pomegranate. 

I do plan to draw a "Kore" version of her as well.  The version of her that is lighter, and more innocent (with less skulls).  I think having the 2 contrasting side by side could be really cool for the series!  For now, I hope you like the DREAD version of her, because I certainly do!

If the images in patreon are having trouble previewing, you can download the images from the bottom of the post.

Anyhoo!  I hope your weekend was wonderful! 💘

Rewards for this piece (attached to bottom of post):

• Full Res Art
• NSFW Version
• Timelapse Video
• Raw PSD<<download link
• Sketch & Lineart
• Process Shots