The Harpy Queen

Category : ,

Date : 2018

For a very long time we wished to do something with harpies. They are amazing creatures, half woman, half bird of prey, hunger for human flesh – just delightful.
They are described as fast as the wind and ferocious as hell but despite their feral nature and monstrous aspect we always saw them as graceful beings, flying elegantly.
We assume, we developed a tremendous crush on these evil mythological beings, they are cooler than the “heroes”, they fight … and yeah, they look badass in seventh Circle of Hell (the suiciders) from Dante’s Inferno .

For all of that, we decided to make a tribute to these lovely monsters – we offered them a queen.

“Capital with Harpies” -Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain- late 11th, early 12th century.
“Harpies in the wood of the suicides” From: Dante’s Divine Comedy-Inferno. Engraving by Gustave Doré, 1890.
“Sirin and Alkonost – Birds of Joy and Sorrow.”- detail of Sirin - Viktor Vasnetsov, 1896.

We know the harpies are part of greek mythology, but with an Egyptian crown and clothing is visually more interesting. The figure look stronger and powerful like a queen must be.
Her head is holding a mask of death under the true face and her four wings separate her from the regular harpies.
This queen is like a demigod, standing between the gods and the mortals with two wings pointing down and the two others facing the skies.
There are two hands holding the heads of two men, her slaves or pets or simply the dinner – we can actually see the despair in their eyes but they cannot verbalise the pain – these details evidence her cruelty.

The other hands are holding a big chalice with “ICHOR” written on the top, which means -“ (…) the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods”.A little far from the original idea but still very curious: in medicine the term “ICHOR” is related to “a watery discharge from a wound or ulcer, with an unpleasant or fetid (offensive) smell”.

Her horrendous skeletal feet stand at the top of a pyramid, fortifying her royal position.
Around that same pyramid we read THOTH, the Egyptian god with Ibis head – his crown was the inspiration for the one we used for the Harpy Queen.

At the top, written in greek, we can read “Aello” (Storm Swift), which is one of three harpy sisters, according to Hesiod. Over the divine triangle we also read “Harpy Imposing” just to affirm how majestic she is.

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