The second new design appearing at the Sorcerer’s Workbench this month: behold the Lightning of Zeus.
I considered several gods as the second Olympian in my line of devotional imagery: Hephaestos, Hera, and Athena were all toward the top of my list. I chose Zeus for three reasons. Firstly, he’s the king of the gods, and including him second after Dionysus is potentially problematic in the first place. Second, of the Olympians, he is the one I have the least personal connection to and therefore represents the greatest inspirational challenge. And, third, he has the benefit of a clear and obvious icon: the lightning.
As with my other devotional images so far, my brainstorming for this devotional image of Zeus took me back to some Attic vase-painting. The image below, borrowed from theoi.com and dating to the 5th century BCE, was particularly inspirational.
I love the way the lightning looks like a dagger from a fantasy roleplaying game, and something about it reminds me of a phurba (though that’s almost certainly just an artist-brain shape-association thing, not a real cross-cultural connection).
Anyone looking at this can tell that the wouldn’t have been possible without multiple symmetry tools. Despite that, it was still two solid hours of fussing from initial inspiration to the final product you see above. Then, having done up the design, I showed it to a friend who *does* have a personal connection with Zeus.
Above and beyond the pure artistic joy of sharing with friends, I wanted to make sure the vibes weren’t off. Vibe check came back double-plus good, so I put it into production. Then things got crazy with the holidays, and the depression, and here we are in April, finally putting the design out into the world.
Ultimately, I am very pleased with my design, and with how that design translated into the metal. I hope that you are, too, and find it worthy for your altar or as a gift for your Zeus-worshipping friends.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1457443807/lightning-of-zeus-devotional-pendant
Although I have so far only cast exemplars in brass and bronze pendant-shapes, these are available in all the metals I usually work in, and as either coins or rosary pieces.