Tag Archives: Cleito

Visual inspiration for Poseidon & Cleito

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I started keeping inspiration boards for my writing the old fashioned way: cutting out pictures from magazines and gluing them to a sheet of oak tag. That old fashioned method had some advantages. It was nice having something to put up in my office where I write, and it was fun taking the time to snip out images that I liked and to place them on the board. But the variety of pictures was limited, especially since my writing takes inspiration from ancient settings. It also could be time consuming, and I knew at some point I would run out of wall space.

So, about six months ago, I converted to Pinterest for my boards. It actually could be just as time consuming. There’s almost an infinite number and variety of images to search through, not that narrowing down that search isn’t easy, but once you get started, it can be hard to stop. Still, overall, it’s much more efficient for me and gives me tons of ancient world and fantasy material to choose from.

For my Poseidon and Cleito board, I was interested in having some images that were evocative of the characters as well as some that reflected costume, setting and mythology. I shared on my board that Maria Sharapova was a modern day inspiration for Cleito, both physically and in terms of her relentless, impassive persona. That may not be fair to Maria. She’s probably a sweetheart off of the tennis court and would never consider murdering her family for wealth and power. 🙂

I think I found the perfect model for the character of Bromios, modeled on the god Dionysius. The one character-model that was evasive in my research was Poseidon himself. I think my publisher did a great job with the cover artwork in depicting him. My challenge was settling on an image of a guy who was hardy, noble, and not conventionally attractive. Male models abound on Pinterest, but they’re too pretty.

People ask me: who would play Poseidon if your book was turned into a movie, and I haven’t come up with any dream choices. There are a lot of excellent, rugged-looking actors (Tom Hardy, Viggo Mortensen), but Poseidon is nineteen, maybe twenty years old in the story, so it would have to be a younger actor, maybe a less-known European with a tall and thin but powerful build. The kind of guy who looks like he has to chase down his dinner in the woods every night.

In addition to prehistoric and ancient Greek imagery, I looked for seascapes, and costumes for the well-clad Adoratrice Cleito, and flora and architecture that would be evocative of the island that would become Atlantis. You can check out the board through the widget below and tell me what you think.

Remember: it’s #PoseidonWeek! On Thursday, September 1st, 9:00PM, I’ll announce winners of Poseidon swag provided by Zazzle. You can enter by commenting or sharing a post or interacting with my Facebook page. 

Cleito

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The last installment of main characters from the novel I’m currently revising is Cleito.

Cleito is a minor figure in Greek mythology.  She’s mentioned briefly by Plato in his Critias dialogues:

“Poseidon…had been awarded the isle of Atlantis, where he begat children by a mortal woman.  The island…where dwelt an aboriginal inhabitant called Evenor, who by his wife Leucippe, had a daughter called Cleito.  The girl, after the deaths of her parents, was espoused by Poseidon.”

There’s no physical description of Cleito that I can find, nor any statues or paintings of her from the ancient world era.

In some ways, that makes her portrayal more fun.  Cleito was the Queen Mother of Atlantis, but she’s left obscure, while her husband is depicted widely in mythology and artwork.  I have a blank slate from which to work.

Here are a few images I retrieved that shape my rendering of her.

 

This is the crest from the Krewe of Atlantis, a civic organization that puts on an Atlantis-themed float at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras.  Cleito is the Grecian matron on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like I said, there are no ancient world artifacts featuring Cleito, so I had to stretch my search to modern things, like this painting that advertises the “Cleito Room” at the Atlantis Guest House in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  Here she’s a mermaid, with quite a following of young mermen.

I’m not depicting Cleito as a mermaid, but she does like having men wrapped around her finger.

According to the website, the “Cleito Room” features one double bed and a shared bathroom.  A room for travelers on a budget.  Cleito would be ruined.

 

This is a painting of the goddess Amphitrite that I really like.  It’s by artist Gintare Bruzas.  Amphitrite was Poseidon’s more famous wife, so there are a whole lot more images of her than Cleito.  It comes really close to how I imagine her.

 

 

Retrieved from Dreamstime

When I started writing Cleito, I kept thinking about Maria Sharapova.  She’s kind of been my muse.  Cleito is strong-willed, physically and psychologically intimidating, tall, commanding, fashion-conscious, and she doesn’t crack a smile when she’s hard at work.  Before she shared the stage with Poseidon, she was the kingdom’s High Priestess after all.