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Fantasy Women

by rtpoe



I can't help noticing a trend in fantasy/comic art. Whenever it in necessary to create a "busty superheroine" or other major female character, the artists generally create a woman dressed (barely) in small pieces of metal or leather. And they are typically carrying a weapon almost as large as they are, or are accompanied by some ferocious beast. The backgrounds are often red or orange, as if there were some huge conflagration destroying a city behind them. The net result gives me the feeling that the woman would hack me to pieces and scatter them to the four winds if I so much as dared to make a pass at her.

Boris Vallejo 's work is a prime example of this type. While technically excellent, the way these artists depict busty babes does nothing for me. Why can't artists have their fantasy women in more friendly and appealing settings? It's not that it hasn't been done, nor is it for the lack of suitable ideas. Piers Anthony's "Xanth" books have a lot of busty characters (described in a suitably elliptical fashion, so that there can be no accusation of eroticism in what are essentially tales for adolescents):

She had been right the first time, Electra thought. Nada's dress clung to her tightly, except where it was forced to jump the gap across her heaving bosom. If the ghost floated close enough to kiss her, he would get the best view available in Xanth.

"That might encourage him," Grey said. He looked in to the blank air. "Ghorge–" he paused, evidently waiting for the ghost. "We would like to know which goblins have captured Che Centaur. Nada Naga, the woman with the—" He hesitated, his eyes traveling across wet assets and valley-hurdling cloth, until Ivy made a frowning ahem. "The amazing, uh, dress, she, er, will let you kiss her, if you answer."

Nada walked to the center of the chamber, put her hands behind her back, lifted her chin, pursed her lips, closed her eyes, and inhaled. Her décolletage went into terminal strain. Ivy crossed quickly to Grey and put her hands over his eyes just as the last event was starting. That was probably just as well, Electra thought, because those eyes had been in danger of popping loose.

Isle of View , Piers Anthony



So where can the artist go for inspiration?

Nymphs

"Nymph"
Magnus Thor
(no date) 		"Nymph"
Photo by Fred Greene
(no date) 		"Nymph from Apollo's Retinue"
Rosalba Carriera
1721 		Nymph riding a wild seahorse
The Court of Neptune Fountain, Library of Congress
Roland Hinton Perry, 1898


Nymphs are general nature spirits and protectors of the wilderness. They exist in many types, depending on what aspect of nature they represent. There are Dryads (trees), naiads (fresh waters, springs), oreads (mountains), Nereids & Oceanides (seas & oceans), and limniads (meadows). They were worshipped in Classical Greece as demigoddesses, with temples, prayers, and songs dedicated to them. They are not to be confused with fairies and that ilk. The creatures of the Fae realms are typically winged (nymphs are fully human in appearance) and exist in both genders (nymphs are always female).

They were possibly leftovers from earlier nature worship. If one treats them as the daughters of the earth-mother (not a big stretch of the imagination), then they might share in her maternal characteristics and have huge breasts.

Potentially immortal as well, there could still be a few around today…

For more info, visit "The Nymphai" .

Mermaids

"Mermaid"
John William Waterhouse
1901 		"Friends of the Deep"
"Carol"
(no date) 		"The Little Mermaid"
Edvard Eriksen
1913 		"The Little Mermaid"
Walt Disney Studios
Movie poster Style B, 1989


Mermaids are creatures of the sea who are combinations of human and fish forms. There are mermaid legends in almost every culture in the world. A combination of human and fish forms, they can come onto land – where they turn fully human in appearance – provided they return to the sea at frequent, regular intervals. While merfolk come in both sexes, the male form is uncommon in the literature. Possibly because most of it is written by men…

While large breasts may make it difficult for a mermaid to move in the water, they may also (being made of fatty tissue) provide some means of bouyancy. But then, as in the case of all fantasy creatures, who said it has to be completely logical?

For more on mermaids, visit The History of Mermaids

Melusine & Undine

"Melusine"
"Puce"
(no date) 		"Melusine"
J. Howe
(no date) 		"Undine"
Karen Morey
2002 		"Undine"
Norman Lindsay
1937


Melusine and Undine are two specific mermaids whose legends came to prominence in the Middle Ages. Melusine, in her human form, fell in love with and married a nobleman. She gave him the condition that she get one night each month to be alone, which he accepted. They lived happily, until his curiosity got the better of him and he peeked. Melusine spent that night in mermaid form. When her secret was discovered, she fled back to the sea. Undine was a water spirit who, in human guise, married a knight so that she could get a soul (it is widely believed that merfolk have none; thus their love-hate relationship with humans). When her husband finds out her true nature, he starts fooling around with real human women. Angered, Undine goes back to the sea, only to reappear when he marries someone else – whereupon she kills him.

Both stories have been quite popular in fiction and art. See Melusina and Undine .

The Nine Muses





The daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne ("Memory"), the Muses have served as the inspiration for poets and artists everywhere. Typically, a poet would begin an epic with an Invocation of the Muses ("Sing, O Muse, of the Anger of Achilles, Son of Pelleas, and the vexation it cause the Achaeans…") Greek in origin, it wasn't until the Romans got hold of them that their names, number, and domain became standardized.

Name Meaning of Name Domain Symbols
Calliope The Fair Voiced Epic poetry Writing tablet
Clio The Procalimer History A scroll
Erato The Lovely Love poetry A lyre
Euterpe The Giver of Pleasure Music A flute
Melpomene The Songstress Tragedy Tragic mask
Polyhymnia She of Many Hymns Sacred music Pensive look
Terpsichore The Whirler Dance Dancing with lyre
Thalia The Flourishing Comedy Comic mask
Urania The Heavenly Astronomy A celestial sphere


Their closeness to divinity makes it very difficult to use them in any erotic fashion. I have never come across a single instance of this. But….given that originally there was no fixed number of muses, and that they are immortal, and that they have probably had many generations of daughters over the centuries, it is likely that the number of Muses has increased over time causing an increasing specialization in their fields. So it is likely that there is a Muse of BE fiction….and she will, without a doubt, have to have enormous breasts.

For more on the Muses, visit The Muses from Greek Mythology .

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