PresAnatomy

Press A Myth: Cerberus

Cerberus: the hell hound of the underworld!

Press A Myth: Loki

The trickster god Loki! Friend or foe?🧐

The one and only Odin! Father of Thor, discoverer of the magical runes and ruler of Valhalla! Here he is! (Before he lost his eye...  😓)

In this post I added an extra twist to the installment! Enjoy! 

With this week's installment, I present to you the Gorgon Medusa! Press A Myth: Medusa

Caduceus

Intro

The caduceus is associated with Hermes: god of trickery, thievery and trade. Yet, a lot of people think it’s the symbol of medicine. In this article, I will try to shed some light on the attribute called the caduceus.

Origins

According to the Homeric hymns, one of the first things Hermes did after his birth was turning a turtle’s shell into a lyre. At a certain moment Hermes gets hungry and decides to steal and kill 50 of Apollo’s sacred cows. To cover his tracks, he lets the cows walk backwards. When Apollo finds out that a part of his cattle is missing, he quickly realizes that Hermes was the one who committed the crime. When he confronts him about it, Hermes says that he couldn’t be the one who did it because he is an innocent baby. Apollo decides Zeus should act as a judge and pass judgement. Yet, he finds this situation incredibly funny. When Hermes escorts Apollo home, he decides to play on his lyre. Apollo is so captivated by it, that he wishes to exchange his caduceus and job as messenger of the gods, for his lyre. Hermes accepts and acquires the caduceus, for which he is now associated with.

Design

The caduceus is a staff coiled by two snakes and is seen as the symbol of messengers. I tried to recreate the caduceus using Blender.

Introduction

So, I’ve been in medical school for over a month and the anatomy of the hand sparked by interest. So, I decided to make a separate post about the hand.

The Manus

The hand (manus) can be broken down into the carpus, metacarpus and phalanges (the fingers). Also known respectfully as ossa carpi, ossa metacarpi and ossa digitorum. The hand has 27 bones, of which the os pisiforme is a sesamoid bone.

Ossa carpi

The ossa carpi are 8 bones proximal in the hand:

1.       Os scaphoideum

2.       Os lunatum

3.       Os triquetrum

4.       Os pisiforme (sesamoid bone)

5.       Os trapezium

6.       Os trapezoideum

7.       Os capitatum

8.       Os hamatum

A handy mnemonic to help you memorize these bones is:

Some Lovers Try Positions That They Cannot Handle

Ossa metacarpi

There are 5 metacarpi, one for every finger.

Ossa digitorum

The ossa digitorum can be found distally in the hand. If you count the ossa digitorum in the pollux (thumb), you will see that there are only two bones present in that phalanx: the proximal and distal phalanges. And if you count the ossa digitorum in the other four phalanges, you will count three bones: proximal, intermediate and distal phalanges. So, there are only 14 ossa digitorum.

Down below, you can find a sketch of the hand made by yours truly.

Poseidon’s Trident

I’ve always wanted to recreate Poseidon’s Trident into something tangible. So I decided to dive into the 3D modelling programme Blender and refurbish this trident in 3D.

But first of all, it’s important to have some background information.

Background Information

Poseidon is the ancient Greek god of the sea and one of the twelve Olympian gods. All the Olympian gods have an attribute that defines them and for Poseidon that is his trident. 

Trident comes from the Latin word tridens which literally means ‘three tooth’ (and tridentes meaning ‘three teeth’). It’s a three-pronged spear which looks like a fishing spear used in ancient Greece. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, the trident, along with Zeus’s thunderbolt and Hades’s helmet, was forged by the Cyclops during the war against the Titans. Cyclops are three eyed creatures who descend from giants and are, among other things, blacksmiths

3D Model

Poseidon’s sacred animals are horses, bulls and dolphins. Considering the fact that the sea was feared by Romans, because a death at sea meant no proper burial and thus an endless life of wandering the earth as a ghost. That’s why I decided to attach a bull’s skull to the trident and to make it aesthetically pleasing I used complementary colors and attached a standard toon shader.

Here you can see the end result in Unity: