Greek Pagan Folktales: Τ’ Ατδιάμο το κλαδί/ Atdiamo’s Twig (Thessaly) by Anima ex Manus Art Dolls

Mixed media: wire armature, paperclay, polymer clay, vintage and found fabrics and trims, felt, soft wood, miniature phial. Her arms are poseable and her eyes are glass. Painted with soft pastels, acrylics and watercolors, and sealed with matte and gloss varnish. She is an art doll ornament and has no legs. She has a loop on her back, to display on the wall.

Height: approx. 56 cm/ 22 inches

This tale is about a king’s daughter who asked her father for “Atdiamo’s twig” as a gift, upon his return. His other daughters got their dresses and hats they had asked for, but the king brought the wrong gift to his third daughter. You see, he thought she wanted an actual twig, so he got her a beautiful golden one. But “Atdiamo’s twig” was the name of a young prince that had stolen her heart. In order to meet her beloved prince, the girl had to succeed in a strange challenge: she had to travel to three different kingdoms, serve as a maid and bring back a cup engraved with the phrase “I was enslaved; now I’m free”.

This art doll character is the wife of the king from the first kingdom the girl visits. Every night, she would slip a sleeping pill in the king’s wine. The king would fall into a deep sleep, and she would then take her needles, pierce the king’s eyelids and drink his blood. The queen was a vampire! She would then visit the graveyard, dig up the dead and devour them.