ART

Reading R.J. Tarrant's notes on Ovid's Hermaphroditus, I felt inspired the strong imagery of the extended simile during Hermaphroditus and Salmacis' struggle. I drew both the octopus and the snake, two animals representing Salmacis, attacking Hermaphroditus as the eagle. At first, there is hope for Hermaphroditus to win and escape Salmacis' suffocating grasp, hence his talons gripping her, but  he begins to fall and Salmacis pulls him underwater where she has the advantage. To make the separate parts of the composition feel more coherent and establish a transition or transformation from one part of the metaphor to the other, I connected the octopus' tentacle to the tail of the snake. This is a traditional piece; I used micron pen for the lines and black paint for the background.