They thought themselves mighty – the greatest seafaring civilisation the world had ever known. Their screams rose, then fell silent, as the ocean devoured them; and in those moments perhaps they knew, finally, how fragile and ephemeral they had been all along.
“A fabled sea creature, variously described as a large whale or sea turtle, that is as large as an island. The name aspidochelone appears to be a compound word combining Greek aspis (which means either “asp” or “shield”), and chelone, the turtle. It rises to the surface from the depths of the sea, and entices unwitting sailors to make landfall on its huge shell.”
Illustration of the mythical Aspidochelone. For fun and practice. Enjoy!
I love your Aspicochelone! Reminds me of the North American Earth Mother myth, representing the Earth as a huge turtle carrying us and supporting us. We’re not so good at supporting her :(. There are lots of myths associated with turtles, such as in Asia, in which the shell was a symbol of heaven and the carapace was a symbol of Earth, thus an invitation for the blessings of both heaven and earth. In Japan there is the tale of Urashima, who finds true love with the help of a turtle. In Nigeria it was a symbol of female sexual organs and sexuality… Love the primal Mother symbology. Anyways, you did an excellent job, it’s lovely :).
Thank you for sharing those myths, I hadn’t come across them 🙂 I want to do a couple more sea turtle pieces, purely because I enjoyed painting it so much.