Art Inspiration: A Gift From The Gods; Pandora: A New Zeus

  In my life I have had moments that inspire me to create and wonder about different possibilities. Working with children has always been a catalyst for these moments. On a number of occasions I have provided a drawing or art class for the children and their curiosity has inspired many ideas and creations. Some of these inspirations have produced scenes of me drawing them camping, or as characters from Harry Potter, but the majority of them enjoyed me creating a scene based on the Greek gods. I have posted this work so titled “The Greek Gods, Distraction on Olympus”.

  This experience was so enjoyable that I have been thinking of creating another scene from Greek Mythology for some time.  In the next few weeks I will be posting the different characters of this scene and a little background info on each one. I must emphasize that this drawing is not for the children in my school but an independent work I undertook for my own enjoyment. It is from my imagination and may be a bit adult.

A New Zeus

  If you have been following my postings of The Gift From The Gods; Pandora you will have undoubtedly noticed that I have already created the character of Zeus. However, when I started creating the other characters I then decided to make this creation more realistic and less cartoonish. My original Zeus was very cartoonish and I did not like how Zeus was depicted. Therefore I redrew him in a different pose and made him more realistic.

  Yet before I go into what my new direction is I for Zeus, let me tell you a bit about his role in the Pandora story. It all begins with Prometheus (my personal favorite mythological character) tricking Zeus. You see Prometheus is seen as the champion of humans and this places him in direct conflict with Zeus. It started around the entire way you make a sacrifice to the gods. In his pursuit to assist humans, he prepares a sacrifice of an ox, to Zeus. He makes two sacks for the sacrifice. The smaller has the rich meat parts and in the larger, the bones and discarded parts of the ox.

  Prometheus wants to trick Zeus into choosing the bones, therefore he offers him the small sack with the larger sack in view. Zeus tells Prometheus that he has divided the sacrifice unfairly. He then offers Zeus a choice of which sack he so desires. Zeus chooses the larger sack with the bones and once he finds out the true of Prometheus’ deception, he is enraged. Zeus them takes fire away from the humans, thereby declaring the humans to “eat their meat raw”. Prometheus resorts to thievery and steals fire from the gods and gives it to humans. Upon discovering the truth of the theft, Zeus is set to punish Prometheus and the humans.

  Prometheus’ punishment, for the theft of fire, is excruciating and without end. Zeus has Hephaestus chain Prometheus to a rock with the help of Force and Power/Strength. There, an eagle would visit him everyday and feed on his liver. However, because Prometheus is an immortal, his liver would grow back or regenerate and therefore the suffering would continue with the return of the eagle the following day. Eternal punishment for stealing fire from the gods and teaching humans how to use it.

  For the humans, Zeus decides to make a woman named Pandora. I will go into more detail at a later date.

  I created the new Zeus not as an elderly grandfather type, but a younger looking man. The first thing I wanted was to really put the emphasis on his physique. Zeus is the king of the gods therefore I wanted to show him in prime physical form. To show his large upper body, muscular, six-pack, etc, I went with a simple loincloth with a shoulder strap and a side pouch for his lightning bolts. He is Zeus after all and the lightening bolt is a symbol of his. I still wanted to show him as a mature man so I added the white hair but more wavy rather than curly as with my original drawing. Mostly all mature men in ancient Greece wore beards as a sign of maturity and stature (also they did not have sharp razors until iron works).   However I wanted my Zeus to have the ability to show that he was different from other gods and men, so I added the goatee. It makes him look mature but it also makes him look like a rock star. His hand is stretched out because in the final piece he will be holding something. You will find out in the final rendering.

  Until then I hope you enjoy my New Zeus ‘The King Of The Gods’ from The Gift From The Gods; Pandora.  

 

Zeus – God of the Sky. The Supreme Olympian God.