The Cycle of Rebirth

This design is available on Redbubble!!!
You can buy the full print, or buy each panel individually.

Full Design: [HERE]
Overthrowing the King: [HERE]
Bring Him Back to Me: [HERE]
Redeeming the Father: [HERE]
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Art Jam Challenge: Moments in Myth and Legend

Several months ago I took part in an internal Art Jam. The theme was Mythology, the aim to create a piece depicting a moment from ancient myth. Naturally I chose Ancient Egypt, since their mythology has always been one of my favorites, and I had a blast re-imagining a touching moment from the story of Osiris and Isis.

Then I bit off more than I could chew and drew three whole pieces instead of just the one.

The winners have yet to be announced, but as I'm about to delve dead-first into Christmas pictures and gifts, I figured I may as well upload this now to compensate the inevitable hiatus.
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The Chaos God Set, jealous of his brother Osiris (for sleeping with his wife and conceiving Anubis), murders him in cold blood. According to legend, Set first traps Osiris in a box and hides him along the Nile, but when Osiris's wife and sister, Isis, discovers it Set hacks him into fourteen pieces and scatters them across Egypt. I combined this moment into one showdown, while behind them the snake-God and God of Evil, Apep, crushes the sun in its coils. Thus the sun sets on his reign.

Isis travels all across the land and with Anubis's help manages to collect all the pieces of his body. Anubis, Nepthys' son and God of the Dead, mummifies Osiris's remains while Isis mourns his death. During this time Isis transforms into a sacred bird and conceives with the corpse, represented here by the presence of her ethereal wings. Anubis reincarnates Osiris as the first mummy, and he becomes Lord of the Underworld. The pyramid and Borealis/nebulae represent an inverted vision of Egypt, which the ancients believed the Duat (Underworld) to look like.

As a result of their corpsey union, Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, is born. He exacts his parents' revenge on Set, engaging him in a furious battle for the right to rule Egypt. When finally Horus overthrows Chaos, he claims the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, becoming the next Pharaoh. Balance is restored to the world as the beetle-God Khepri rolls the sun across the sky, a symbol of rebirth. Every evening the world of Chaos swallowed the sun, where it traveled through the dangers of the Duat, before being reborn each morning.

Thus balance is restored where once Chaos reigned.

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More in this series:


  


--Sak
Characters and Artwork © Shamine Athena King
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