virgo

Done for my nephew Jonty. Not my best, drawn while on the road, with limited materials (pen nibs aren't allowed on planes, jars of ink are also difficult to travel with, so watercolour has been used instead), smaller than usual as it was drawn on a travel sketch pad.

Sun in virgo. Virgo is Persephone, so she is holding an ear of wheat and a pomegranate. Behind her Charon is punting the dead across the river Cam to Kings College (Jonty was born in Cambridge). Above her Saturn (father time with his scythe) is in Libra. Going clockwise: Mercury in Virgo. Mercury is the god of communication as well as merchants and thieves, so he has a mobile phone as well as his more usual winged hat and sandals and caduceus. Jupiter is in Pisces. As king of the gods I have seated him on a sky blue throne and given him the traditional thunderbolt. Uranus the god of the sky is also in Pisces. I haven't found many good pictures of uranus, so I have modelled him on the Hindu god Varuna (blue, four arms, riding on a flying monster). Varuna and Uranus are believed by some to be one and the same. Greek, Norse, Celtic and Hindu mythologies all originate from the same Indo European culture. Neptune, the sea god with his trident is in Aquarius. Pluto the cartoon dog is in Aquarius. Moon in Scorpio. Venus in Scorpio. I have modelled her on Botticelli's birth of Venus. Mars is in Libra. Mars is god of war so I have given him a kalashnikov.