Persephone, Kore

Stages of Persephone (1)

Kore
Daughter of Demeter and Zeus
Wife of Hades
Queen of the underworld


Mixed techniques, 2021
33 x 25 x 23 cm

Eleusinian Persephone

Stages of Persephone (3)

Kore
Daughter of Demeter and Zeus
Wife of Hades
Queen of the underworld
Main actor in the Eleusinian mysteries,
with her mother Demeter


Mixed techniques, 2021
26 x 26 x 34 cm

Persephone, ruler

Stages of Persephone (4)

Kore
Daughter of Demeter and Zeus
Wife of Hades
Queen of the underworld



Mixed techniques, 2021
48 x 43x 38 cm

Aeneas, fugitive

Stages of Aeneas (2)


Aeneas, a Trojan hero, represents people who need to flee from homeland and habitat because of war, oppression and danger of death. Aeneas initially seems to be one of the big losers in the Trojan epic. In the end, however, it is not Hektor, the intended Trojan heir to the throne, not Achilles, the virtually invincible hero who dies on the ramparts of the city, not Agamemnon, the scrupless Greek army commander, who is murdered on his return home, who keep the best prospects. Aeneas' flight with an old invalid father and a young son is a  tragedy and a metamorphosis at the same time. Aeneas symbolizes the last man, the last human, on an exodus to a new beginning. Nothing is eternal, everything is changing. Aeneas' son Askanios founded a new dynasty, while it lasted, of course: glory and decay. What is left when there is nothing left? It is an existential question. Maybe only the universe is eternal, we are certainly not, neither our beliefs, our culture, our possessions, not even our planet earth.



Mixed techniques, 2022
53 x 53 x 30 cm

Duplicitous Phoibos Apollo

Apollo is one of the twelve Olympic gods. The addition Phoibos refers to the sun. Apollo is the son of Leto and Zeus and twin brother of Artemis.

Apollo is the shepherd god, but also the god of the wolf. He is protector of music and god of medicine. He is the leader of the Muses.  His character is ambiguous. He stands for the beautiful and sublime, at the same time he is an intriguer, an intrusive woman attacker, for example with regard to Kassandra, to Daphne, or to Koronis; he is an excellent but jealous musician with sadistic qualities, for example with regard to the satyr Marsyas that he had skinned alive after a music competition. Apollo also stands for causing epidemic diseases among human beings. With his bow and arrows, he spreads deadly ailments. Apollo, the good and the evil, united in one person.

The Oracle of Delphi became the site of a major temple dedicated to Phoibos Apollo.



Mixed techniques, 2022
30 x 23 x 30 cm

Aeneas, fugitive

Stages of Aeneas (3)

Aeneas, Prince of Troy

Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. Aeneas has been commanded by the gods to flee in order to found a new Troy. Aeneas escaped the burning town with his young son Askanios, his old father Anchises and a group of other people.








Mixed techniques, 2022
38 x 31 x 30 cm

Unscrupulous Agamemnon

Stages of Agamemnon (2)


Agamemnon was king of Mykenae. He commanded the Greeks during the war against Troy. He was married to Klytaimnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Elektra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. His brother Menelaos was married to Helena. The war for Troy was linked by Homer and others to the kidnapping of Helena by the Trojan prince Paris. In fact the cause was less romantic, it was an imperialist war to destroy the mighty, competitive and economically successful Troy. 

 
Agamemnon was a ruthless ruler who did not hesitate to sacrifice his eldest daughter Iphigenia to the gods in order to obtain a favorable wind for his war fleet. For this act, he was killed after returning home from the war, by his wife Klytaimnestra and her lover Aegisthos. Orestes in turn, instigated to do so by his sister Elektra, killed his mother and her lover for that.  



Mixed techniques, 2022
28 x 20 x 28 cm

Klytaimnestra: "And you were always on my mind"

Klytaimnestra

Klytemnestra is the wife of Agamemnon, the army commander who went to Troy because a local prince there, Paris, had kidnapped his sister-in-law, Helena.

Klytemnestra is a daughter of Tyndareos and Leda. Zeus, the supreme god, was in love with Leda. He approached her in the form of a swan and made her pregnant. That same night, Leda also slept with her husband and became pregnant by him as well. She gave birth to four eggs. Two of them produced children of Zeus: Helen and Polydeukos. From the other two came children of Tyndareos: Klytemnestra and Kastor.

When Agamemnon wanted to leave Aulis with his Greek fleet, he was unable to do so due to a persistent lack of wind. A prophet told him that he had insulted the goddess Artemis, who had then caused the wind to stop, and that only the sacrifice of his eldest daughter Iphigenia could break that curse. Because his men began to mutiniy, Agamemnon was forced to comply. He asked his wife to come to Aulis with Iphigenia because the hero Achilles wanted to marry their daughter. He kept the true reason a secret. In Aulis however, not a bridal bed was waiting for Iphigenia, but a sacrificial table.

After ten years, Agamemnon returned from Troy, with the king's daughter Kassandra, who had been taken hostage by him. Together with her lover Aigisthos, Klitaimnestra killed them both. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, thereupon kills his mother, at the urging of Elektra. another daughter of the sad house of Atreus.

Klytemnestra, 2025

30 x 20 x 30 cm

Hephaistos, blacksmith

Stages of Hephaistos (2)


Blacksmith of the gods

Son of Hera and Zeus
Married to Aphrodite

Patron god for artisans, blacksmiths, and sculptors



Mixed techniques, 2022
27 x 21 x 30 cm

Hephaistos, blacksmith

Stages of Hephaistos (2)


Blacksmith of the gods

He forges the most beautiful artworks with fire and heavy hammers, and with a glow on his cheeks


Mixed techniques, 2022
27 x 21 x 30 cm

Stubborned Achilles

Stages of Achilles (1)

Achilles defeats Hektor and dishonors his corpse by putting it behind his chariot and pulling it through the dust around the walls of Troy. Achilles predicted and shortly thereafter subsequent death is not described in the Iliad but passed down through other sources. Achilles was the prototype of a strong hero and at the same time a spoiled type with a sneaky character.The Trojan Prince Troilos, killed in an underhanded manner by Achilles, could have had a say in it. According to legend Achilles was burried together with Patroklos on a small island, now known as Snake Island, or Serpent Island, located in the Black Sea, near the Danube Delta. The historian Pliny the Elder wrote that the tomb of Achilles and his close friend Patroklos was on the island.This island plays in our time a role in Ukraine’s heroic resistance against its brute usurper. 






Mixed techniques, 2022
28 x 22 x 30 cm

Combative Penthesilea

Stages of Penthesilea (1)


 

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, before the war for Troy, in which they occur. Apparently their existence was known and needed no further explanation. 

 

Mixed techniques, 2023
22 x 26 x 35 cm

Chryseis, sister in fate

 
Stages of Chryseis (1)

Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollon (mother unknown). She was the spoils of war from Agamemnon 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! (...) 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 claim Briseis, Achilles' concubine, in return.  Achilles reluctantly obeyed, and the resulting contention is the subject of the Iliad by Homer. 

Chryseis and Briseis are sisters in fate, or companions in distress, victims of war, like so many women.




Mixed techniques, 2023
68 x 41 x 25 cm

Pivotal Briseis

Stages of Briseis (2)










Mixed techniques, 2024
90 x 42 x 32 cm

Intriguing Penelope

Stages of Penelope (3)

Penelope remains a fascinating figure in Greek mythology. With Homer, she is the loyal consort, who keeps the suitors at a distance, until her husband Odysseus returns to Ithaca after twenty years. Odysseus had initially wanted to compete for Helen's hand, but judged his position to be hopeless. Penelope was the daughter of Ikarios, brother of the Spartan king Tyndareos and his wife Periboia. Odysseus asked her in exchange for arranging an agreement between the suitors who were fighting for Helen.In later stories, Penelope's marital fidelity is also questioned. For example, she is said to have had a son Pan, from a relationship with the god Hermes, or fathered by the joint suitors. Odysseus is said to have disowned her on his return, after which she returned to Sparta and from there moved on to Mantinea, a city in ancient Greece in the Peloponnese, where her tomb is also said to be. Other sources say that she remained with him until the death of Odysseus and that she married Telegonos afterwards. Telegonos is one of the sons (according to Hesiod) that Odysseus fathered with Kirke during his return journey from Troy.

Mixed techniques, 2023
61 x 35 x 25 cm

Transitional Hekate

 
Stages of Hekate (1)

Hekate is a mysterious goddess in Ancient Greek mythology. She is the goddess of thresholds, crossroads and boundaries, like the transitions from life to death, and vice versa. Hesiod, the Greek poet and contemporary of Homer, describes Hekate as a benevolent goddess who endowed her favorites with wealth and social success. She has the power to award victories in war and sports. She has special care for traders and travelers and for livestock. 

The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women told that the goddess Artemis transformed  Iphigenia , daughter of Agamemnon and  Clytaimnestra into the goddess  Hekate after she is treacherously sacrificed by her father.

 Hekate is a close friend of Persephone, daughter of Demeter and wife of the god of the underworld Hades. 

Mixed techniques, 2023
45 x 25 x 32 cm

Nike Victory

Nike is the goddess of victory. She served Zeus in his war against the Titans. She is called “Winged Victory” too, but not always depicted with these attributes. A famous Nike can be seen in the Louvre in Paris. The “Winged Victory of Samothrace”, or the “Nike of Samothrace”, is a votive monument originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Head and arms are missing and its base is in the shape of a ship's bow, but what means “missing” with such a sculpture? The fragmentary representation may not contradict the original Antique view, but the appeal made to our imagination and the compositional quality of what has remained to us makes up for a lot.

My depiction of the goddess Nike is a reduced sculpture. Part of the upper body and the beginnings of arms, perhaps wings, is what remained. The more room there is for the imagination of the observer.




Mixed techniques, 2024
100 x 95 x 30 cm