Achvizr

This is new work of Achvizr, an Etruscan Goddess or personification of some positive quality. She is depicted on several engraved mirrors, and is often found in the company of Turan, the Goddess of love. The first part of Her name may be related to an Etruscan word for 'Doctor', and She may have a connection with healing or health. Accordingly I have put Her in the colors associated in modern times with doctors and the medical profession (and gave Her blood-drop earrings and pendants).

The original is in colored india inks, using white gouache as a resist, which has been all washed off. Basically the technique is to paint the gouache where the outlines don't go, so that the outlines end up being negative space, which gives them the quality of line work found in say a wood cut or linoleum block print. It's definitely been a learning curve with this technique (the first time I tried it I scrubbed the gouache off too forcefully and took off much of the ink itself, while ruining the surface of the paper!) but I think I may (fingers crossed!) have gotten the hang of it, somewhat. Anyway I'm really very pleased with the result this time.

I've put this up on prints at my deviantArt site as usual, here. I mean, not that anyone besides (Etruscologist) Nancy T. de Grummond and me (and now you) have even heard of Her!

More Li'l Greek Goddesses

I'm aiming to do the complete Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters, but for now, here are the new ones:

Psykhe or Psyche (Ψυχη), the Goddess or personification of the Soul, beloved of Eros.

Elpis (Ελπις), the Goddess of hope.

Khione (Χιονη), the Goddess of Snow, Whose father was Boreas, the North Wind.

Lethe (Ληθη), Goddess of Oblivion.

And Metis (Μητις), the Goddess of wisdom and cunning, the mother of Athena. I gave Her Her daughter's blue eyes.

They're all in colored india inks and are very small, only an inch and a half wide.

Nantosuelta

This is new art of Nantosuelta, a continental Celtic Goddess, Whose distinctive attribute is a little house (or temple) on a pole. That's been taken to mean She's a Goddess of happy domesticity; She can also be shown with apples (or other fruit or perhaps loaves of bread) or something that might be a beehive, so that does sound about right. Her name means either 'Meandering Stream' or 'Sunlit Valley', though given She is not usually shown with watery imagery I'm guessing the latter is more likely. Though who knows; that's just going by the depictions of Her that have survived the ages, of necessity an incomplete picture.

She is also quite often shown with a raven, which gives Her a darker aspect, as the raven is as far as I know always a symbol of death (or battle) in Celtic thought.

She was associated with the Celtic hammer-God Sucellos, and was his cult-partner (or one of them, depending on the region). He was Himself heavily associated with the wine harvest (and the center of Their worship was the wine-growing regions of France and Germany, especially the Moselle River valley); I thought an autumnal harvest scene was appropriate, with a burgundy-colored shawl to make reference to wine.

It's in acrylics and is something like ten inches tall; I've put it up on deviantArt as a print as usual if anyone's so inclined.

Done for the October Goddess by Request over on my Patreon.

Gorgyra

Another little ink piece using the brush for linework; this is Gorgyra, a Greek Underworld nymph. Her name means 'Drain', according to Aaron over at Theoi.com, but I wonder if it might be more like 'Rushing Whirlpool' or somesuch. Not that I know Greek, but 'gyre' comes from the Greek and means 'whirlpool', while there are a whole bunch of words in modern Greek that start with gorgo- or similar and refer to speed. Just a guess. At any rate it's more poetic than 'Drain'!

She was the wife of Akheron, the God of the Underworld river of the same name. She was also called Orphne, and may represent the darkness of the river Styx.