That marketplace was a struggle to illustrate ;_; but for the sake of immersiveness it’s worth the labour.

With the outdoor cult shrine worship, I’m not sure if it’s a confirmed thing, but I can explain my reasoning to depict this anyway: this is a combination of ancient Greeks putting some of their bronze statues in the agora, the ancient Greeks placing offerings at outdoor sacred sites AND my own lived experience in Asia of ordinary religious/superstitious people placing statues of deities in the parking lot/the bus stop/outside our houses/jungles OR initiating their own offerings to cult images already established. There’s also this charming New York subway Hermes shrine in the year 2020 which saw the average New Yorker making offerings of Metrocards and trinkets.

Maybe it’s a stretch (it’s definitely, admittedly a move) to make connections of generalised public paganism/polytheistic religious practice between different eras and cultures… but like, I don’t know. The media depiction of ancient Greece has been touched by the influence of secularised European Christianity for ages. For once I wanted to counter it with an artistic choice based on an actual lived experience with gods and deified people that is casual, petty, ordinary, grassroots and spontaneous.

Which is why I kept the offerings for Hermes pretty basic. Some wildflowers, incense that’s touch-and-go, plain pottery and terracota figurines of people and animals. This Hermes statue is simple too. Not as much flourish as the statues I will soon draw in Book Two.

Anyway, in addition to this there would be a proper Hermes temple with a bigger, fancier statue and all the bells and whistles in another part of the marketplace. That’s just not what I am depicting right now. Maybe later, with another god.

Footnotes:

Khaire (χαῖρε)- a greeting, for hello and goodbye

When the Parthenon had dazzling colours – a BBC article about the polychromy of statues in ancient Greece, which includes a really gorgeous recreation of a pair of bronze statues.

The Technique of Bronze Statuary in Ancient Greece – Met Museum

Ancient Greek sun hat, petasos

Macedonian flat cap, kausia

Tavernas, kapeleia – research article by Kelly-Blazely on the existence of public eating and drink places.

Ancient Greek horse bit – an example from the Met Museum, a statue of a horse with bit and brindle from the British Museum, and the clearest example on pottery of how the bit and brindle are worn. (I used quite a few sources – that’s why the horses in this chapter have different accessories and styles… I’m drawing my own reference for later!)

The amount of reference I needed just to draw the horse bit correctly (correct to Alexander’s era/culture) 😓 pic.twitter.com/bBSsozXBsJ

— Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life (@alekosromance) September 8, 2021