This was originally meant to be the Babylonian death-goddess Ereshkigal, when I was using a combination of Babylonian, Biblical and made-up names for the divine characters in Atash... I really love the story of Ishtar's descent into the Underworld to visit her sister Ereshkigal, who then murders her and is convinced to ressurect her as long as she sends someone down in her place... and I was planning to make that a part of my mythos. I probably won't now (though I may do something similar) but I would like to do a comics version of the original myth, some day, as well. Anyhoo, I really like this design and I think it works well as an embodiment or personification of Death. I'm not really sure where Death fits in with the gods of my mythos as it stands now... I'm thinking maybe keeping the realm of Death pretty mysterious and even beyond most of the gods... at any rate this Death Angel is probably the one that welcomes you when you get there... maybe she also has a male form and she switches between male and female depending on whichever is the most appealing to the spirit she's taking into the great beyond... well, if she feels like being nice to them that is.
4 comments:
The Ishtar mythos is very curious. There are similar ones in the Wotan myths, I'm thinking of my favorite story of the death of Balder, which is precipitated by Loki who I think is a his half-brother. Also the Orpheus myth has similar themes but deals with mortals who are blessed by the gods. I can't help wanting to see the male forms of this Death Angel.
Yeah I love the Orpheus myth as well but I think I like the Ishtar story even more just because it is so weird and we don't fully know the motivations of the characters... like, we don't even know WHY she goes into the Underworld, it doesn't seem to BE for any reason as far as we can tell, right? I like the death and rebirth of Balder too, with Frigga (I think) asking everything in the world to promise not to harm Balder but then thinking mistletoe is so harmless she won't bother it... precious!
I like the treatment of the legs. It reminds me of Kirby's New Gods which is great.
Jon, there's a very good reason for that - I was looking at a picture of Jack Kirby's Hela (goddess of death) as inspiration for designing this. As far as I'm concerned Jack's Hela is THE LAST WORD in archetypal death-goddess/angels. Actually I always love his treatments of gods and/or god-like hidden races. The Inhumans, the Asgardians, the New Gods, the Eternals... sigh...
Post a Comment