ILLUSTRATION PROJECTS: NIGHTMARES

ILLUSTRATION PROJECTS:

NIGHTMARES

1. ILLUSTRATION SERIES: GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND

ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS IMPOSED BY THE GODS

LYCAON, KING OF ARCADIA, CONDEMNED BY ZEUS TO BE A WAREWOLF

Lycaon, the werewolf:

Lycaon was the son of Pelasgo, who was the first man who lived in theArcadia. When Pelasgus died, his son Lycaon inherited everything. He was as wise and intelligent as his father, but he was cruel and arrogant, and he started doing rituals that included human sacrifices and anthropophagy, which means eating human flesh. Over onemountain, Lycaon founded the city of Licosura, the oldest city in Greece, and built a temple in honor of Zeus. They did not sacrifice local people, but travelers, who passed through the place.Zeus wanted to know what was happening, so he pretended to be a visitor, and the Arcadians noticed that he was a god because he reflected light. Lycaon wanted to prove him and served him human meat from his own son. Zeus, enraged, destroyed everything with his lightning bolts, including the palace, and turned him into a ferocious wolf. He gave him the chance that every ten years, if he hadn't eaten human flesh, he would be human again. But every time he failed. On nights with a full moon, he would go out to howl asking Zeus for forgiveness, and to eat whoever passed through the place.

ERYSICHTHON, KING OF THESSALY,

CONDEMNED BY DEMETER TO ETERNAL INSATIABLE HUNGER

Erysichthon:

In Greek mythology Erysichthon was a king of Thessaly. He was the son of Triopas or Myrmidon, but no source cites his mother. He isan example of an impious king who was condemned to suffer eternal hunger. Erysichthon despised the gods and did not make sacrifices to them. One day he wanted to build a roof forhis banquet hall and did not hesitate to cut down, with the help of twenty giants, a sacred tree that was an ancestral sanctuary for the goddess Demeter. The dryads that inhabitedthese trees ran to request help from the goddess. Demeter tried to make Erysichthon stop the sacrilege. Butthis one, far from being dissuaded, threatened the goddess to kill her with the ax that wasusing. Demeter, victim of unprecedented anger, ordered Limos (thehunger), or Nemesis, to avenge this outrage. Hunger touched the belly of Eresichton, and since then, nothing would satisfy his desire to eat: the more he swallowed, the more his hunger would grow. When Erysichton sold all his possessions to buy food, his father took care of feeding him, but his voracity was so big that in a short time he ruined him, and ended upbecoming a beggar who ate garbage. He was so desperate and miserable, that he ended up eating himself,to end his torment.

TANTALUS, KING OF SIPYLUS, CONDEMNED TO STAND FOREVER

IN THE HADES, UNABLE TO DRINK OR EAT

Tantalus:

Tantalus was a son of Zeus who ruled Sipylus, Lydia, and was extremely rich and famous. If the olympian gods had ever honored a mortal, this was Tantalus. In consideration of his high lineage, they offered him an intimatefriendship and, finally, they allowed him to eat at the table of Zeus and listen to the immortals. Buthis human spirit, full of vanity, did not know how to keep up with that superhuman happiness, and began to offend the gods in many different ways. He revealed to the mortals the secrets of the Olympians, and stole nectar and ambrosia to share with his earthly companions. Finally, his biggest insolence was when he invited the gods to a banquet, and, to test their omniscience, he sacrificed his own son Pelops and served him at the table. Only Demeter, who was in pain because of the kidnapping of his daughter Persephone, ate a shoulder of the horrible meal. The other gods,realizing the atrocity, threw the dismembered limbs of the boy into a cauldron and Clotho the grim reapergave him new life with renewed beauty. The consumed shoulder blade was replaced with an ivory one. The angry gods threw Tantalus into the Hades, where he was condemned to terribletorments. He was sumerged in water up to his neck, and suffered a devouring thirst, without ever being able to reach the liquid that was so close to him. As soon as he would bend down to drink, the water would dry under him. He also suffered from acruel hunger. Behind him there were magnificent fruit trees, whose branches curved above his head with juicy pears, apples with red skin, shinypomegranates, appetizing figs and olives; but as soon as he tried to catch them with his hand, a wind blew and raised the branches up to the clouds. To this infernal torture was added a constant terror ofdeath, since there was a huge rock suspended in the air above his head, threatening to fall down on him. He spent the rest of eternity suffering in this hell.