Daphne (Metamorphosis) - a pencil drawing

I have been slack lately in posting my drawings on the blog. I will pick up again, starting from my freshly finished, slightly gender-bending Daphne.

 

"Daphne (Metamorphosis)" 

Pencil on paper

35x50cm

© Katherine Wyvern 2019

"...a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy. Only her shining beauty was left."

 

When people read the myth of Daphne's Metamorphosis (narrated by Ovid, quoted above, and others), They usually take away two moral lessons. First, that Apollo was an abusive brute who could not take no for an answer.  Second, that in however much trouble one may be, asking help from the gods is a mistake because their idea of 'help' can be a tad bizarre. 

Both these things are probably true, but many readers miss the most poetic bit of this story. 

Which is, that even after she ran from him, and morphed into a tree, Apollo still loved her. That is why the bay tree became sacred to him.

"My bride," he said, "since you can never be, at least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree. My lure, my locks, my quiver you shall wreathe."

He may have been the first tree-hugger in history. But there is a terrible beauty in this. 

This was supposed to be my Valentine post, but I could not finish the drawing in time. Perhaps a little grim as a Valentine story, but love is a complicated business, and red roses don't begin to cover it. 

Model, the ever-wondrous Danila Kovalev. 

Pencils, Faber Castell Graphite Pure, mostly 6B, 8B and 9B.

The "laurel" is not an accurate botanical representation.