Ibeji

In Yoruba culture twins are believed to be sacred at birth and protected by the deities called Ibeji.The Ibeji and all twins are considered one soul contained in two bodies; inextricably linked in life through destiny. If one twin dies an Ere Ibeji (a small wooden figure) is made so ensure that the departed's soul remains as strong as the living's. 


Read more about this belief at:
http://www.randafricanart.com/Yoruba_Customs_and_Beliefs_Pertaining_to_Twins.html
http://santeriachurch.org/the-orishas/ibeji/

Death of Adonis

Here is another ancient greek myth drawing.
There was this time Adonis boasted he was a better hunter than Artemis, so Artemis sent a wild boar to kill him.
This is just one of the ways he supposedly died, but it's defiantly my favorite.

Serglige Con Culainn (The Sick-Bed of Cú Chulainn)

"Cannot the lasses of Ulster find any other but us," he said, "to give them their bird-hunt to-day?"

And the woman in the green mantle approached him, and she laughed a laugh at him, and she gave him a stroke with a horsewhip.

And he by himself slew thirty-and-three of them. Now, after all these things had passed, Cuchulain slept with the lady.

"Speak! and tell me, Cuchulain," cried Emer,
"Why this shame on my head thou wouldst lay?

And Fand goeth away with Manannan the Son of the Sea, and Manannan shook his cloak between Cuchulain and Fand, so that they might never meet together again throughout eternity.

I did this little series based loosely on a story in Irish mythology: The Sick-Bed of Cú Chulainn. Check out the full translated text at www.manannan.net or for a funnier version try  www.bettermyths.com

Grizzlybear Woman

For a while I have been messing around with drawings for a Native American myth about a woman who marries a grizzly bear. Her father has the bear slaughtered and in her grief she takes a piece of his skin and gains the power to turn into a bear. She ravages her village and kills everyone but her little brother and sister, Okinai and Sinopa, and her six brothers who are away on the war path.

When the six brothers return Sinopa tells them what has happened and of their sister's plot to kill them all. The brothers told her to collect prickly pears and cover the area in front of their lodge with them, leaving only a small path for her and her brother to escape by during the night. As they were escaping the Grizzlybear Woman heard and rushed out side after them, treading on the prickly pears. Roaring with pain and anger, she assumed her bear shape and rushed at her brothers.

But Okinai rose to the occasion. He shot an arrow into the air, and so far as it flew the brothers and sister found themselves just that distance in front their sister behind them. As the Grizzlybear Woman gained on them Okinai waved a magic feather and thick underbrush rose in her path. But, again, she followed them and Okinai caused a lake to spring up before her.

She continued to pursue them and this time Okinai raised a great tree which they all climbed to escape. The Grizzlybear Woman, however dragged four of the brothers from the tree. When Okinai shot an arrow into the air his little sister sailed into the sky. Six times more he shot an arrow, and each time a brother went up, Okinai himself following them with his last arrow.

Thus the orphans became stars; and one can see that they took the same position in the sky as they had occupied in the tree, the small star at one side of the bunch is Sinopa, while the four who huddle together at the bottom are those who had been dragged from the branches by the Grizzlybear Woman.

I unfortunately don't know what group of Native Americans this story is from or what constellation the orphans formed, but I really like the story anyway so I'm going to keep doing drawings for it. Hope you enjoy them.