This poem, by C.B., hit me so hard and inspired such vivid imagery that I had to draw it.
“Tell me the story” talks about the objectification that women in ancient Greece faced and the myths they passed down to their daughters.
Warning: minor depictions of sexual assault and nudity. This poem talks about Medusa, Daphne, and Europa among the general era of awful-ness women went through.
I might redo the comic with typed words, but for now I’ll leave the writing as is (so organic, right??).
Here is the poem in full:
tell me the story:
Of the dryads who turned themselves to trees
To hide from the greed of men
Smelted in their axes
And smouldering in their eyes.
tell me the story:
Of a goddess who loved
Her priestess so much
She let herself be called a monster
To save her from those wandering hands
Cold like stone.
tell me the story:
Of the mountain of the gods
Built on the broken bodies
Of the women of the Mediterranean,
The ones who laughed and-
Ambrosia dripping from their lips, thick and sweet like blood-
Named their continent
After a woman they planted in the dirt.
Tell me the story of how those bones
Grew the West,
The bones of Europa,
Victim in life
And
Not as dead as Zeus.