Gorgon of Legend

Trying to sort out some painting technique. Was trying to do some sort of huge legendary gorgon and pulled on myths about Scylla for inspiration.

It turns out Scylla legends pretty much stereotype the cultures that come up with them. The ancient Greeks who came up with the concept didn’t care why there was a monster; they just felt there was something outside their human-centered, male-centered understanding of reality, and that was scary to them. Romans with their love for making mythology into gigantic soap operas described Scylla as being the victim in a tragic love affair. Centuries later, the mythology inspired a French musician to write an opera about the tragic love affair, and a Victorian English writer completely stripped out the monster bits and kept the love affair -- with everyone ending up happy in the end.