Persephone

Persephone is one of the most multi-layered figures in Greek mythology. Her transformation from the innocent flower maiden 'Kore' into the formidable Queen of the Underworld offers psychological and artistic depth, presenting numerous challenges to an artist exploring 'possible faces'.

Persephone represents pure innocence, youth, blossom, and the carefree world above. Yet, she also possesses a darker countenance: the unapproachable, dreaded queen of the realm of the dead, ruling alongside Hades. She is the linchpin of the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries, embodying the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. In this role, she is neither mere victim nor simple ruler, but a symbol of transformation itself.

This demands faces that are almost ritualistic or transcendental, where the boundaries between human, god, and nature blur. I have portrayed Persephone multiple times, hoping to approach the sheer diversity of her character and presence.

Mixed techniques, 2021
33 x 25 x 23 cm

Persephone's Path

Persephone's path is defined by a seasonal cycle that splits her life between two worlds. Hades fell in love with Persephone and abducted her to the Underworld while she was picking flowers. Heartbroken, her mother Demeter withdrew her blessings from the earth, causing the first winter, during which no crops could grow. 

Before Persephone could return to the surface, Hades tricked or tempted her into eating pomegranate seeds (the food of the Underworld), binding her to his realm forever. 

Zeus brokered a deal: Persephone spends half of the year in the Underworld with Hades (bringing winter to earth) and the rest of the year on Olympus with her mother (bringing spring and summer). 

The path of Persephone represents dualism and transformation. She is simultaneously the innocent goddess of spring growth and the formidable queen of the dead.





Mixed techniques, 2021
48 x 43x 38 cm

Another (H)era

 

Hera is the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth, who watches over human relationships. The Greek poet Kallimachos wrote that her wedding feast with Zeus lasted three thousand years. Hera was one of the three women (together with Athena, and Aphrodite) who took part in a contest for the prize of a golden apple, addressed 'to the fairest'. Hera did not win. 

This 'apple-gate' eventually led to the Trojan War because the winner (Aphrodite) promised the judge, Paris, prince of Troy, the most beautiful woman on earth. Unfortunately, that woman (Helen) was already married to Menelaos, king of Sparta—a clear example of bribery with far-reaching consequences. It must not have been easy to be Hera, especially with an iffy character like Zeus around. 

Hera carries the weight of the world on her tiny shoulders. I have tried to capture this conceptual message in the visualization of this sculpture.

 



Mixed techniques, 2022
 67 x 37 x 42 cm

Unstoppable Asklepios

 

Asklepios is the son of Apollo. His mother, Koronis, was a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis. Apollo was a jealous god. When he heard that his lover was to marry a mortal, he punished her by burning her at the stake. Before Koronis was completely incinerated, Apollo rescued the unborn infant from the flames.

The question of the human condition and the search for the limits of humanity, in order to overcome them, is nowhere more evident than with Asklepios. Asklepios is the blessed physician, educated by the centaur Chiron. He is the symbol of medicine. His abilities pushed Zeus to his limit. Asklepios started bringing dead people back to life, such as Tyndareus, Kapaneus, Glaukus, Hymenaeus, Lycurgus, and others.

Hades, god of the underworld, accused Asklepios of stealing his subjects and complained to his brother Zeus about it. Zeus was afraid that Asklepios would teach the art of resurrection to other humans as well. Immortality was the defining characteristic of the gods. If that disappeared, there would be nothing left to distinguish men from gods. Zeus killed Asklepios with his thunderbolt.

After Asklepios's death, Zeus placed his body among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchos ("the Serpent Holder"). Later, however, upon Apollo's request, Zeus resurrected Asklepios as a god and gave him a place on Olympus. Asklepios is associated with a snake-entwined staff, the Askulapstab (or Rod of Asclepius), a symbol that we still know and use to this day—for example, on the windscreens of doctors' cars or in the names of pharmacies.

Mixed techniques, 2022
30 x 21 x 30 cm

Iphigenia at Aulis

The myth of Iphigenia represents the ultimate tragic theme of punished innocence. Agamemnon, her father and army commander, lures Iphigenia to Aulis by promising she will marry the hero Achilles. However, he had completely different intentions. The goddess Artemis stalled the Greek fleet with a calm wind because Agamemnon had offended her. Agamemnon acted with absolute intent to deceive. He exploited the name of the respected warrior Achilles to deceitfully win the trust of his daughter and his wife, Clytemnestra. It was not a planned union for life, but an invitation to the altar of death.

The seer Kalchas reveals that only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's eldest daughter will appease Artemis. Iphigenia accepts her fate for the sake of Greece. In most versions, Artemis saves her at the last second, replacing her with a deer. Artemis abducts her to the distant land of Tauris (the modern-day Crimean Peninsula). There, she spends her life as the high priestess in the temple of Artemis.

Although saved in Tauris (Crimea), Iphigenia lives in deep loneliness. As high priestess, she is forced to sacrifice all strangers who enter the land. This duty escalates when her young brother, Orestes, appears at the temple. The tragedy of Iphigenia is a prime example of unconditional devotion and the cruelty of fate in Greek mythology. Much like Persephone, Iphigenia transforms from an innocent young woman into a formidable personality. This transformation is the core of her story. Euripides originally documented this tragedy, and the drama was further developed, deepened, or refined by many subsequent writers in later centuries.

Mixed techniques, 2024
35 x 30 x 30 cm

Unscrupulous Agamemnon

Agamemnon is the leader of a Greek alliance against Troy. Troops are mobilized from all parts of Greece. Not everyone is very willing. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who has just become the father of a son, pretends to be insane. However, his intentions are seen through. Another Greek hero, Palamedes, recognizes the ruse. Later, Odysseus will unscrupulously avenge himself on Palamedes. 

The great Greek hero Achilles also tried to escape the war, mainly under pressure from his mother, Thetis. She placed her son with King Lykomedes, where he hid in girls' clothes among the king's daughters. However, Odysseus discovered this. 

Forced participation in pointless wars (the latter being a pleonasm) is a phenomenon of all times, unfortunately. War means saying goodbye to humanity, to empathy, to dignity, and to reason. Lessons from history are, unfortunately still, apparently hard to learn. Agamemnon represents the archetypal ruler who views human lives purely as currency for personal glory, geopolitical expansion, and pride. 

There are still too many Agamemnons among us.

Mixed techniques, 2022
28 x 20 x 28 cm

Hephaistos, blacksmith

Hephaistos is the Greek god of fire, blacksmithing, and sculptors. He is the son of Hera (conceived without a father). He was married to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, following a blackmailed past. 

He is considered the only physically impaired (limping) god of Olympus, a consequence of the fact that Hera threw him off Olympus after birth because she found the child so ugly. 

His forge is often located beneath volcanoes, such as Mount Etna. Among other things, he created the armor of Achilles and the thunderbolt of Zeus.





Mixed techniques, 2022
27 x 21 x 30 cm

Stubborned Achilles

Achilles was the mortal son of Peleus, a Greek king, and Thetis, a sea nymph or goddess. He was the strongest Greek hero in the Trojan War and a central character in Homer's Iliad. He was a hot-tempered and stubborn character. 

Achilles was almost invincible, except for a vulnerability in his heel that ultimately proved fatal to him. Today, we still refer to such a weak spot—even in non-physical matters—as an 'Achilles' heel'. The Homeric epic covers only a few weeks of the decade-long war and does not narrate Achilles' death. It begins with Achilles' withdrawal from battle after being dishonoured by Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces. Homer describes the duel between Achilles and Hektor, the prince of Troy and heir apparent to the throne. Achilles was furious because Hector had killed his friend and lover, Patroklos, in a duel."




Mixed techniques, 2022
28 x 22 x 30 cm

Combative Penthesilea

Penthesilea  - Amazone

The Amazons were female warriors. Penthesilea is the mythical queen of the Amazons. Penthesilea and her army came to support the Trojans in their fight against the Greeks. In a direct battle against Achilles, the strongest Greek warrior, Penthesilea was killed by him. When Achilles takes off her helmet, he is overwhelmed by her beauty and regrets her death. Homer only briefly discusses the Amazons in the Iliad. He describes two situations, prior to the Trojan War, in which they appear. Apparently, their existence was known and required no further explanation.








Mixed techniques, 2023
22 x 26 x 35 cm

Chryseis, sister in fate

 

The myth of two women and their fate marks the actual emotional and dramatic turning point in Homer's Iliad. Their story describes the dynamics between human hubris (arrogance) and haughtiness, and the tragic fate of women in ancient conflicts. 

Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo (mother unknown). She was Agamemnon's spoils of war during the Trojan War. When Chryses tried to ransom his daughter, Agamemnon scolded the old man: 'Old man with your gray head, be warned! That I may not see you again by the hollow ships! (...) The staff and wreath of your god will not protect you.' 

Chryses withdrew and prayed to his god. Apollo answered his prayers and brought terrible diseases upon the Greek camp. At the prompting of the seer Kalchas, Agamemnon finally returned Chryseis to her father. He did, however, claim Briseis, Achilles' concubine, in return. Achilles reluctantly obeyed, and the resulting contention is the subject of the Iliad by Homer. 







Mixed techniques, 2023
68 x 41 x 25 cm

Helen, born from an egg

Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda—the latter of whom was impregnated by the god in the guise of a swan—was mythologically born from an egg. Following a competitive courtship, she wed King Menelaus of Sparta. Prior to the nuptials, all suitors were bound by a sacred oath, pledging military assistance to the victor should Helen ever be abducted. Her subsequent abduction by Paris of Troy compelled the Greek states to mobilize an expedition to reclaim her.

This is the romantic version of the story. From a geopolitical perspective, the growing wealth of an independent Troy was a thorn in the side of the Greek alliance. The abduction of Helen was the perfect casus belli (justification for war). It provided the Greek kings with a moral justification to join forces. Starting a war over an abducted queen sounds far more honorable than a bloody invasion driven by tolls and trade routes.

The constituent elements of Helen's biography are derived from the classical traditions of Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides, and Homer (spanning both the Iliad and the Odyssey), with subsequent reiterations appearing in Book II of Virgil's Aeneid.

Mixed techniques, 2023
65 x 34 x 20 c.

Dire straits: Odysseus' lost men

Odysseus took part in the Trojan War in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC with twelve ships and about 600 men. It was a trade war between an alliance of Greeks and the wealthy city of Troy, which controlled access from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea due to its strategic location. Estimates of the total number of ships and crew range from approximately 15,000 to 100,000 people. Agamemnon was the commander of the joint Greek army.

Of Odysseus' men, only he himself returned. Wars have no winners, only losers. His men were killed both in the war and on their journey home. The Cyclops Polyphemus devoured six men; the gigantic Laestrygonians pelted the fleet with rocks, sparing only Odysseus' own ship. Elpenor died on Circe's island of Aeaea, and the monster Scylla devoured another six men. On Thrinacia, the island of the sun god Helios, Odysseus' men slaughtered the sun god's sacred cattle. Helios sought revenge and asked the gods for help, resulting in a storm that sank the ship. Everyone perished; only Odysseus survived.

Odysseus washed ashore on the island of Kalypso, where he remained under her enchantment for seven years. He finally moved on using a raft, but that raft also ran into dire straits. He then washed ashore in the land of the Phaeacians. What remains are memories. Homer later used these, drawing from the preserved sources of singers and storytellers, for his unsurpassed epic. The friendly Phaeacian people finally brought him back to Ithaca—the place where he once lived, where he was king, where his wife Penelope had held out against pushy suitors all those years, where his son was, and where he still had friends.

 

mixed techniques, 2023
40 x 24 x 25 cm

Transitional Hekate

The high status of Hekate, as the most esteemed among the gods according to Hesiod, eventually changed, but she remained a goddess of protection and destruction, of fertility and of death. 

Hekate ruled over border areas. People honored her and sought her advice at intersections and gates. She is strongly connected to magic, and later also to sorcery. Medea of Kolchis was a priestess of Hekate, the dark goddess.

Mixed techniques, 2023
45 x 25 x 32 cm