Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Daily Sketch #8:Pythia

The Pythia was sacred, the Pythia was touched by the divine, the Pythia spent days hallucinating under the influence of burned leaves and natural gas.


True:

The ancient Greeks took their land from a people who regarded snakes as sacred, at least sometimes. They also believed women could be sacred, at least sometimes.

The ancient Greeks had no particular feelings about snakes. And they certainly didn't regard women as divine-- women were the babymaking home appliance centers of their world! But when they found the seat of the Delphic Oracle, they knew there was strong magic at work. It's best not to mess with that stuff. So they redubbed it after Apollo, slapped some bay leaves on the proceedings, and left a woman, the Pythia, to interpret the oracle.

This was not fun for her, and she was still a woman, so they also left some men to interpret her.

Being touched by the divine is rarely *fun*.

6 comments:

Live, Love, Laugh, Write! said...

I love all the curvy lines in this piece Cara :)

TiLT said...

I like how you used the brights on the black - it really pops. Can't let my 13 yo see it though - kinda sexy-naughty ;)

Meri Greenleaf said...

I second that the colors look really good against the black. :)

Carapace said...

Isn't the color-on-black wonderful?!? I tried so many times to get that effect with gel pens, colored pencil, crayons, but none of it ever had that POW contrast.

Tilt- I admit I was ripping off the classics, and apparently they had not yet discovered the powerful corrupting ability of the female nipple. Then again, they hung flying penis statues in the nurseries, so I think it's safe to say they haf some different attitudes.

Mannie of MannieMandible said...

Wowowowowwww! This just might be one of my faves! I love the curves, and the black background!

Carapace said...

Thanks, Mannie! I'm thinking of collecting all the black-base ones for an ACEO set.