Ovid's Metamorphoses

Iuppiter, ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem
et superesse virum de tot modo milibus unum
et superesse videt tot modo milibus unam,
innocuous ambo, cultores numinis ambo,
nubila disiecit nimbisque Aquilone remotis
et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris.
nec maris ira manet positoque tricuspide telo
mulcet aquas rector pelagi, supraque profundum
exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum
caerulem Tritona vocat conchaeque sonanti
inspirare iubet fluctusque et flumina signo
iam revocare dato.  Cava bucina sumitur illi,
tortilis in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo,
bucina quae, medio concepit ubi aera ponto,
litora voce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo.
tum quoque, ut ora dei madida rorantia barba
contigit et cecinit iussos inflata receptus,
omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis
et quibus est undis audita coercuit omnes.
iam mare litus habet, plenos capit alveus amnes,
[flumina subsidunt collesque exire videntur,]
surgit humus, crescunt iuga decrescentibus undis;
postque diem longam nudata cacumina silvae
ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum.
(Met. 1.324-47)

Jupiter, when he saw that the Earth was soaked in watery marshes
and that just one man out of thousands had survived
and that just one woman out of thousands had survived,
both free of sin, both pious towards the gods,
dispersed his clouds, and with them set aside by the North Wind,
he revealed the earth to heaven and heaven to earth.
Nor did the anger of the sea remain, and with his trident set aside,
the ruler of the sea calms the waters, and calls Triton,
his shoulders covered in natural purple, and orders him
to blow his resounding conch and to recall the waters and rivers
with the given sign.  He takes up the hollow trumpet,
twisting sideways as it grows up from the lowest point of the spiral,
a trumpet which, when it draws in air in the middle of the sea,
fills all the shores under the sun with its sound.
then also, as it touches the god’s wet lips, water dripping down his beard,
and the blast sounded the ordered retreat,
it was heard by all the waves on land and sea
and whatever waves heard it, it restrained them all.
now the sea has its shore, the riverbeds hold in the full rivers,
[the rivers subside and hills are seen rising out of the waters,]
the land rises, the mountains grow from the subsiding waves;
and after a long day, the tops of the exposed forests
show themselves, and they retain mud on their leaves.

First of all, I’d like to apologise for the long and unannounced hiatus.  It’s been three months (more, actually) since Deucalion and Pyrrha made their prayer; while Ovid’s the gods are quite willing to respond immediately, I got sidetracked.  I am working to get my PhD dissertation drafted before Christmas, so I can submit on time at the end of this year.  My dissertation is the foundation of my future career as an academic, and my labour of love; I want to get it right, just like I want to get this comic right.  Therefore, I can’t guarantee that new comics will be quickly forthcoming, but I can promise to try my best to keep them going.  This is a project that I love dearly, and despite its daunting scale, I am determined to see it through.

Now we get to see the reaction to the couple’s prayer.  It’s not Themis, but rather Jupiter and Neptune who take pity on them.  They are the source of the storm, and can recall it as easily as they started it.  Here, we see a sequence that is meant to be the reverse of the beginning, as the waters that once swelled recede, and the trees that were once covered in water are left caked in mud – but, above water!  Triton, Neptune’s right-hand-man and water-wrangler is the focus of this page, as he is the focus of Ovid’s long description.  Despite the fact that drawing him was a huge source of this page’s delay, I really like how he came out.

I was initially going to copy Ovid’s narration into text bubbles, but decided that the images can speak for themselves.  Afterall, they are fairly similar to what we saw just a few pages ago.  If the storm was a descent into Chaos, with all the elements mixing incongruently, then the next few pages will be setting the world back into order.  That is, however, a story that will come all too soon (assuming I draw fast enough).

Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll forgive me for leaving you hanging for three months!  See you soon!