Kalma’s name, the Finnish goddess associated with death and decay, possibly means “The Stench of Corpses,” which is enough of a declaratory statement in itself. Narratives revolving around her, often find her lingering in graveyards and cemeteries so much that the Finnish word for graveyard, kalmisto, is thought to derive from her name. She’s today’s […]
I can bear a little Picasso if I could stand Rodin last season, but it might be irksome to some of us, attending an exhibition on Picasso that’s particularly related to his “primitivism” period: the man was an asshole to women, and his fetishized approach to the female body extended to a consistent exploitation of […]
Ved-ava was a water deity revered among various Finno-Ugric people who made a living from fishing, so you shouldn’t be surprised that she’s also linked with fertility. What’s slightly more surprising (or not) is her connection with sacrifices of various genres, sometimes even human. She’s today’s feature on my Patreon.
The amazing Tatiana Fajardo posted this painting back on Xitter (go and follow her if you don’t) and I just couldn’t let it go. The author is Alexander Davis Cooper, a British 19th-century painter born in 1820, and the painting is part of the Atkinson Art Gallery Collection. The work is dated 1867 and features […]
The asphodelus is a perennial plant with tall, white clusters of flowers that resemble a pinecone, and Homer’s Odyssey indicates it as a plant connected to Hades and the afterlife. When the Romans thought the Greek vision of the afterlife was a tad too bleak and came up with something to convince people to die […]
A Sea-Spell is a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti representing a woman playing the lyre: it was paired with a poem on the subject, and three other paintings of women engaged in various forms of artistic expressions. It’s today’s focus on my Patreon.
Following the rejection I got to my query letter on Valentine’s Day, yesterday I got a much more polite one. Things are progressing fast and I need to move my ass because I’m running out of books to give my Patrons, especially since I endeavour to annotate some of them and to provide an original […]
Vanth was a female demon in the Etruscan underworld, frequently depicted alongside other manifestations of the same figure (two Vanths are better than one, apparently) or another underworld demon known as Charun (later referred to as Charu). She lacks a direct equivalent in Greek mythology and is frequently depicted as a winged, benevolent figure. She […]
“too long for traditional publishing”, and on Saint Valentine’s day nonetheless! Yeah, this rubbed me the wrong way a little, since I’m perfectly within the boundaries of the word count recommended for my genre and hey, if you like the project we can trim it, right? Wrong. Apparently. Anyway, this means you get a romantic […]
The third and last (but not least) of the three sirens who challenge Orpheus and die in the Orphic Argonautica, Leukōsía “the white” is connected to the city of Paestum and a local legend tells us how she drove a rock through her heart because of the unrequited love with a prince. She’s today’s profile […]