Daphne

For some reason (no, I know the exact reason and am ashamed of it, but will tell you later in the entry) I have always been intrigued with the story of Apollo and Daphne from Greek mythology.

In the versions I've read, Daphne is a virgin priestess or servant of Diana (the virgin goddess of the hunt, who had an affinity for deer, and all her followers vowed celibacy). Apollo, the god of light (who some versions say drove the chariot of the sun across the sky, but others say that was Helios, mythology is finicky that way) is walking around one day in the woods and sees Daphne. Apollo, with a lust true to all the Greek gods (except the virgins) pursues Daphne to do what we all know he wants to do. Terrified, Daphne runs, but the god is faster than she, so she cries out to Diana for help. Diana answers by turning Daphne into a laurel tree just as Apollo reaches her.

Another Greek myth has an elderly couple turned into I think rowan trees that entertwine when they ask Apollo that they both die at the same time so they are never apart from each other.

Why these seem like good ideas, I don't know. I know the Greeks didn't view the afterlife as such a good thing, and that they believed that trees were inhabited by nymphs (many cultures believe in tree spirits), but it still amazes me that in this culture Daphne would rather have spent the rest of her life as a tree than to have submitted to the gods.

Anyway, I've been intrigued by this since...ugh, I feel so awful letting go of this shameful secret...since I read the Babysitter's Club Mystery that was set at an art museum. An exhibition by a sculptor was being shown and there were some missing coins...anyway, one of the sculptures was both woman-like and tree-like, based on Daphne. I think, sadly, that this is part of what originally got me interested in Greek Mythology (though now I tend to enjoy lesser known folk tales).

I've been playing with the idea of a woman that looks like a tree...or a tree that looks like a woman, and I think I have the next idea for my wire tree. I sketched a couple of ideas (one of them during Experimental Psychology, where I do a lot of drawings...sorry Prof.!). Anyway, the first one was done tonight and the one on notebook paper is the original. Yay for mythology and yay for actually drawing something that's halfway decent.