Greek Mythology Bookmark | Norse | Egyptian Gods | Ancient Gods

The gods were always just the stories we told about the things we could not contain. For every reader who has loved mythology since before they knew the word mythology — who grew up with Olympus and Asgard and the banks of the Nile and who has never stopped believing that the thunder is still Zeus and the ocean is still Poseidon and the dawn is still Eos even after all the scientific explanations arrived and said otherwise. For every reader who understands that the gods are not primitive attempts to explain the weather. They are the deepest and most enduring thing that human beings have ever done with a story — they took the incomprehensible forces that shape every life and they gave them faces and names and loves and rivalries and they made them into characters that could be argued with and prayed to and offended and reconciled with and that is not superstition. That is literature. That is the oldest literature there is. For every reader who has a favorite god and knows why and has opinions about the others. This bookmark is for all of you. The gods are still here. They never left. They are just waiting for someone to look properly. ✦ ABOUT THIS BOOKMARK A richly illustrated scene that travels the full vertical axis of the mythological world — from Mount Olympus in the brilliant gold and deep sky blue at the very top to the River Styx and the realm of the dead at the very bottom, the complete mythological cosmos rendered as one continuous immersive illustration that honors the divine traditions of Greece and Rome and Egypt and the Norse world simultaneously. The sky at the very top is the sky of mythology — more saturated and more dramatic than ordinary sky, the blue deeper and the gold richer, Olympus visible at the summit above the clouds in the particular deep gold of a place that is above the weather and above the ordinary world. A lightning bolt crackling warm gold in the clouds. The eagle of Zeus as a silhouette against the brilliant sky. The sun chariot of the sky's daily journey suggested in warm gold movement at the upper edge. The Milky Way — the road of the gods — a luminous band of stellar light flowing through the upper composition. Moving down through the composition the sky gives way to the middle world where the gods touch the human — the complete mythological cosmos made visible in one scene. A great world tree stands at the center of the composition — the axis mundi, the living spine of the universe, its roots reaching to the underworld and its branches reaching toward Olympus, Norse runes carved into its ancient bark. An owl in the branches. A raven. A peacock feather catching the light. The white marble columns of a Greek temple warm in the Mediterranean afternoon. The deep blue of the Aegean at the edge of the scene. The Nile visible alongside it — amber and ancient, the sun disk of Ra warm gold above the river, the Egyptian divine world present alongside the Greek and the Norse in the same continuous world. Objects of myth and ritual gathered in the center — a lyre, a caduceus, a golden apple, a pomegranate split open showing its deep red seeds, a trident, a torch at the crossroads. The languages of multiple divine traditions present as texture throughout the composition — Norse runes in the tree bark, Egyptian hieroglyphs in the stone, the visual grammar of the sacred. The lower portion deepens into the divine realms of earth and underworld — the River Styx dark and slow and cold, the boundary between the living world and the dead one, a boat at the river's edge. The underworld rendered as a complete realm rather than a punishment — the Elysian Fields warm amber in one portion, the realm of Hades as a kingdom with its own dignity and its own light. The world serpent suggested at the very base of the composition — the creature that encircles everything, the Ouroboros of the Norse tradition, the foundation on which the entire world above it rests. The gods were always just the stories we told about the things we could not contain. This bookmark contains all of them in one vertical painting from the highest heaven to the deepest earth. ✦ BOOKMARK DETAILS — Size: 2.15 inches wide by 6.75 inches tall — Printed on premium card stock — Full color illustration front with matte finish — Arrives in a kraft envelope — Ready to use in your current mythology read the moment it arrives ✦ PERFECT FOR — Every reader who has loved mythology since childhood and never stopped — Greek mythology devotees who grew up with the Olympians and consider them old friends — Norse mythology readers who know their Yggdrasil from their Bifrost and their Odin from their Loki — Egyptian mythology enthusiasts who understand that the oldest stories are not the simplest ones — Readers of Rick Riordan and Madeline Miller and Neil Gaiman and Stephen Fry and every contemporary author who has honored the old traditions with new life — Book clubs reading mythology — these books generate extraordinary conversations about the human need for story and the human need for the divine — Gifts for the classics student or classics lover who takes their mythology seriously — Anyone who has a favorite god and strong opinions about the myths — Mythology teachers — this bookmark is the companion gift for every person who has taught the Odyssey or the Iliad or the Norse Eddas or the Egyptian Book of the Dead — Birthdays and holidays for the mythology lover in your life who has everything except this — Pairing beautifully with our astrology bookmark and our individual zodiac sign bookmarks — the mythological cosmos and the celestial one, the gods who became the stars and the stars that were always the gods — Treating yourself — the gods approve and their approval is not easily given ✦ A NOTE ON THE TAGLINE The gods were always just the stories we told about the things we could not contain. This is not a dismissal of the gods. It is the highest possible compliment to them. The things we could not contain are the real subject — the thunder and the ocean and the death that comes without warning and the love that arrives the same way and the harvest that fails and the harvest that doesn't and the darkness at the end of everything and the light at the beginning of everything. These are not small things. These are the entire content of a human life. The gods are the stories we made equal to those things. That is an extraordinary achievement. That is why they are still here. ✦ THE WORLD TREE The world tree stands at the center of this bookmark. It appears in multiple traditions under multiple names — Yggdrasil in the Norse world, the sacred tree in the Egyptian, the axis mundi in the Greek and Roman cosmological imagination, the world pillar that holds the sky up and connects the living and the dead. It appears in this bookmark at the center of the composition because it is the center of the mythological world. Its roots go deep. Its branches go higher than the eye can follow. The runes in its bark are the oldest writing. The owl and the raven in its branches have been watching everything since before human memory. The tree is still here. It always will be. ✦ THE POMEGRANATE The pomegranate split open in the center of the composition has six seeds showing. Every mythology reader knows what six seeds means. Every mythology reader knows what Persephone chose and what it cost and what it gave her and why she is the most interesting figure in the entire Greek tradition. The six seeds are in this bookmark. They are always in this bookmark. The seasons are turning because of them right now. ✦ THE RIVER STYX The River Styx is dark and slow and cold in the lower portion of this bookmark. There is a boat at the edge. Charon is not depicted. He does not need to be depicted. The boat is there. The river is there. Everyone who has ever died has been here. Everyone who is alive right now will be here eventually. The Elysian Fields glow warm amber in the distance. The underworld has its own light. It always did. ✦ PAIRS BEAUTIFULLY WITH Our astrology bookmark and our complete zodiac collection — the gods who named the planets and the stars, the myths that became the sky, the sky that became the myths. The mythology bookmark and the astrology bookmark together are the complete celestial and divine library for the reader who lives in both worlds simultaneously which is most mythology readers. See our shop for the astrology bookmark, the twelve individual zodiac sign bookmarks, and our complete mystical and mythological collection. ✦ ALSO COMING IN OUR SHOP Individual mythology bookmarks dedicated to specific pantheons — Greek and Roman, Norse, and Egyptian — each rendered in the specific visual language and specific color palette of its tradition. If you have a specific pantheon that owns your heart reach out through shop messages and we will let you know when your bookmark is available. ✦ SHIPPING Ships within 3 to 5 business days. Arrives in a kraft envelope so your bookmark comes to you simply and beautifully — ready to use immediately. The gods oversaw the delivery. They had opinions about the timing. Everything arrived exactly when it was supposed to. ✦ ABOUT OUR SHOP Every bookmark in our shop is designed and produced professionally by us — made with care in our own studio and printed on premium materials we stand behind completely. We are a small passionate operation and we treat every order like it matters because it does. We are committed to five star service on every single order — from the moment you click to the moment your bookmark arrives at your door flat and perfect and ready to live inside your favorite book. If anything is ever less than exactly right please reach out and we will make it right immediately. We respond to every message promptly and we mean it — real people, real responses, no automated runaround. Thank you for supporting a small independent bookmark maker. It means everything to us and we do not take it for granted. We hope this bookmark finds exactly the right book and exactly the right reader. Michelle and Julie The Luna and Loom 📚