#rodopi

Oh hey, I came across my old sketchbook again, and decided to share some of these here (I actually had prepared to post some of them already some time ago, but then that got derailed).

This here is from 2020, depicting the story of Rhodopis. It was written down by Strabo and Aelian in the 1st and 2nd centuries a.d. It is by some scholars considered the first version of Cinderella, though only the section wuth the trial of the shoe is present. Rhodopis was also a real historical character, a hetaira (ἑταίρα) from Thrace (around modern day Bulgary), who was freed by the brother of Sappho, Charaxus. She was able to get rich and send a donation to the temple in Delphi, which lead to many legends to form around how she got so rich. Some of these were transcribed by Herodotus, though even he found them ludicrous.

When I drew this, the italian wikipedia article on Rhodopis still only gave the plot of Shirley Climo's 1989 retelling of the tale, so here the woman is washing her clothes rather than bathing and a hawk carries the shoe instead of an eagle.

That's true! I feel bad that Thrace is overlooked in my blog but I honestly have trouble finding content wtf

At least thirty houses were flooded and many animals were drowned when torrential rains fell in the prefecture of Rodopi in North-East Greece and set large parts of the region under water.

It rained without a break from Saturday evening until Sunday noon.

Roads turned into rivers and several people were trapped in their vehicles or homes.

The fire brigades evacuated 35 residents and motorists across the area.