On the left, Hermes, or Mercury, the messenger of the Olympian gods. He is usually depicted with a winged cap or winged shoes, but instead I merged him with one of his animal symbols, the rooster.
On the right, Argus Panoptes, a giant with one hundred eyes.
Hermes is an amazing representative of communication – not only is he messenger of the gods, but he is also their psychopomp (what a great word!), the entity who delivers the newly-deceased to Hades, and he was said to carry Morpheus' dreams from Somnus, the valley of sleep, to sleeping humans.
In the story depicted here, Hermes is called upon by Zeus to rescue Io, the priestess Zeus has been cheating on his wife with. Hera has figured the infidelity out, but Zeus quickly changed Io into a white cow before Hera spotted her with him. Not fooled, Hera asked for the cow for a present, and had Argus Panoptes tether it to an olive tree and guard it. Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Io (and kill Argus Panoptes), and he achieves this by different means in different stories. In this version Hermes tells the giant really boring stories to lull it to sleep (and thus make it close all its eyes) and then kills it. What a way to communicate!
An interesting addendum to this story is an origin myth – in order to commemorate her giant, Hera places Argus' eyes in the feathers of the peacock. That would make a great illustration as well, I think.
3 comments:
Laura, this is amazing! I can't stop looking at all of her eyes...
It's finally done, and definitely worth the wait!
Also, I love the type treatment in your banner...
Laura, I've been waiting for your next illustration for a long time and I have only one word for you. Magnificent...! I love your interpretation.
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