Six Seeds

Portrait of Kaylan and Mira, characters belonging to Valaquia and Liraen for a contest they are currently holding. It was a requisite to portray the pairing adapted to a mythological theme, and I chose he myth of Hades and Persephone, the Gods of the Underworld.

Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken off to live in the underworld as his wife. Her mother, Demeter (goddess of the harvest), went into mourning for her lost daughter and thus all green things ceased to grow. Zeus, the highest ranking of the Greek gods, could not allow the Earth to die, so he commanded Hades to return Persephone. It was the rule of the Fates that anyone who consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Persephone had no food, but Hades tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds and so, because of this, she was condemned to spend six months in the Underworld every year. During these six months, when Persephone is sitting on the throne of the Underworld next to her husband Hades, her mother Demeter mourns and no longer gives fertility to the earth.

What I specially like about this myth is that some versions differ and say that Persephone ate those six seeds willingly, and then ruled as the Queen of the Dead: so terrible that her true name was a taboo and not safe to speak aloud. After all, Persephone literally means "Bringer of Death"... also, the personalities of Kaylan and Mira, imo, suited these two quite well.

Well, that's it for today, no more rambling xD I'm very sorry that the painting came out a bit rushed; I would've liked to devote more time to polish things out here and there, but my current workload made it impossible!

Hope you will like it, thanks for watching