Help me with my next Illustration!

DragonKing

So, it has been a while since I attempted anything mythology based, yea some mythology artist I am right? I have one piece that I have been wanting to do for years now, but a lack of confidence in being able to make it work has constantly kept me from attempting it until now, I still don't think that I can pull it off, but what is worse failing or giving up?

So here is the deal, I'm want to start a piece called, "King of Gods", and as you guessed, it is going to be an illustration of several different God Kings interacting with each other. What will they be doing? Who knows, maybe a massive scale battle, or maybe just sitting around playing a game of cards while Zeus and Baron Samedi tries to hit on their wives. I won't know until I start working out the compositional sketches.

So, what is it that I need from you? Funding! Lol no, but seriously I don't know who I'm going because I'm not using them all. I don't have anywhere near the confidence to attempt that. Just 5- 7 of the God Kings, here is the current list and pantheons.


Australian Aboriginal pantheon: Baiame
Algonquin pantheon: Gitche Manitou
Ashanti pantheon: Nyame
Aztec pantheon: Huitzilopochtli or Ometeotl or Quetzalcoatl
Canaanite pantheon: Originally El, later Baʿal (now usually identified with Hadad)
Carthaginian pantheon: Baʿal Hammon
Celtic pantheon: Dagda
Chinese pantheon: Yuanshi Tianzun, Jade Emperor, Shangdi, Tian
Circassian pantheon: Theshxwe
Dahomey pantheon: Nana Buluku
Egyptian pantheon: Ra a.k.a Amun-Ra, followed by Osiris, Set and finally Horus
Finnic pantheon: Ukko
Germanic pantheon: Týr or Wōden
Georgian pantheon: Armazi, Ghmerti
Greek pantheon: Zeus
Guarani pantheon: Tupa
Haida pantheon: Raven
Hindu pantheon: Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu or Brahman
Hittite pantheon: Arinna or Teshub
Hopi pantheon: Angwusnasomtaka
Igbo pantheon: Chukwu
Inca pantheon: Viracocha or Inti
Inuit pantheon: Anguta or Anigut but only among the Greenlandic Inuit
Japanese pantheon: Amenominakanushi, Izanagi-no-Mikoto, then Amaterasu-Ōmikami
Latin pantheon: Janus, then Jupiter
Lakota pantheon: Wakan Tanka or Inyan
Lusitanian pantheon: Endovelicus
Māori pantheon: Tāne
Mayan pantheon: Hunab Ku
Mesopotamian pantheon: Sumerian: An, later Enlil; Babylonian: Marduk
Miwok pantheon: Coyote
Muisca pantheon: Chiminigagua
Turco-Mongol pantheon: Tengri and Kayra
Nabatean pantheon: Dushara
Norse pantheon: Odin
Persian pantheon: Ahura Mazda
Pre-Monotheistic Jewish pantheon: originally El or Elyon, later Yahweh
Sami pantheon: Beaivi
Slavic pantheon: Perun
Tagalog/Filipino pantheon: Bathala
Vodou pantheon: Bondye
Yoruba pantheon: Olorun

Gods, I know I'm obviously going to use.

None, better believe one of the African gods is going to make it though.

Gods I'm on the fence about.

Vodou pantheon: Bondye; if you know anything about Vodoun, then you know Bondye actually doesn't interact with the world. He actually leaves that to the Loa. I was debating whether or not to replace him with Papa Legba. For those who don't know who Papa Legba is, he is basically one of the most important Loa in the whole religion. Before any is allowed to contact is of the Loa of Vodoun they first must get permission from him.

Yoruba pantheon: Olorun
Ashanti pantheon: Nyame
Igbo pantheon: Chukwu

If you know me then you know one of my little niches is I'm mostly knowledgeable in East, West, and South African Mythologies (if only I could retain all the freaking stuff I read for when I needed it). One of the more repeated ideas's about those region's supreme gods is that they are omnipotent/omnipresent/omniscient. This would make a battle illustration basically one sided against gods like Zeus, Odin, and a few others who aren't omnipotent. Yet, you know me and I'm not going to do a piece about with multiple gods and leave out Africa... like the rest of the western world loves to do.

Norse pantheon: Odin
Greek pantheon: Zeus
Egyptian pantheon: Ra a.k.a Amun-Ra, followed by Osiris, Set and finally Horus

Don't worry, I'm going to save you the "so overused that they almost didn't make the damn list at all" rant.


So thoughts and ideas on which God Kings I should use?

Kamigoroshi

Wōden and Odin is the same person. The only difference being the former is written in Old English rather than Norse. That's one guy less to draw.

For the Hindu pantheons, Indra may be an most appropiate addition. Given that he's also known as King of Deities.

Of the traditional African religions, there's also Amadioha of the Igbo religion. Adroa of the Lugbara people may also be fitting. While the Bantu mythology may also be of interest to you with their supreme god Ngai.

For the Wiccan religion you could include the Great Horned God.

The last one on top of my head would be Ba'al Hammon, the king of the Carthaginian gods.
Dang, didn't saw you already listed Old Baal.

semiticgoddess

I would like to see Indra.

DragonKing

@Kamigoroshi
This list doesn't even come close to a number of god-kings we could name, I was just naming as many as I could at the moment. There are still supreme gods who I can't remember how to spell. Mwali Twili... no that is not it...

I've been going through my mythology books trying to remember this gods name. Its left eye represents the moon and right eye represents the sun. I want to say it is a Swahili god but I can't fully remember right now. I can't fully remember the story but it is supposedly both male and female and hade a son and daughter who are basically its name separated. It has been a while since I read the story, but it is a creation deity.

Edit:
Ok I think I'm thinking about Mawu-Lisa, Who is Dahomey not Swahili and is not a creator deity and i forgot to add Nana Buluku to the fence list.


@semiticgod
Need at least 4 more.

semiticgoddess

@DragonKing: Pan Gu, the Daoist creator deity?

A lot depends on what context the gods' meeting will be. If it's a drinking contest, Indra would fit right in.

DragonKing

@semiticgod
Don't know just yet, the only context for sure they'll be interacting some how.

joluv

I'd especially like to see deposed kings of gods; it seems like they'd have more interesting perspectives. I don't know whether there are any of those in the mythologies of sub-Saharan Africa, though.

DragonKing

@joluv
Now that is one where I'd, in fact, have to go digging for. I believe
Henotheism is possibly The best description for a lot of sub-Saharan mythologies. Nyame, Nana Buluku, and Bondye are basically equivalent to the Christian god. They are the primordial forces of creation and ever other deity just doesn't compete. Yet in Vodoun, Bondye doesn't interact with the world directly, instead, he manifests himself through the Loa (which have been called everything from spirits to lesser deities).

On the other hand, you have Olorun the ruler of heaven, Eledumare the creator, and Olofi, who is the conduit between Orun (Heaven) and Aye (Earth). Who are all three different manifestations of the supreme god. There is Shango, the third king of the Oyo Kingdom who got deified becoming the Orisha of Thunder, lightning, justice, dance, and virility. So a god getting dethroned is quite possibly there in one of the many cultures of Africa.

Also, I don't everything about sub-Saharan mythology, The Bantu are a mixture of many cultures and have lost a lot of their mythology over the years and what is there, I'm still picking at the iceberg to learn and relearn (I forget things very fast). So that is in fact somethingI'd have to go digging for.

DragonKing

So I've come down to this...

If they are all primordial forces of creation, then I may depict them creating the universe together. If they are simply God-Kings (E.X. Zeus), Then I'll possibly depict them debating and dividing the people and planet apart.