Floral
What can be said of the Cytherean Sword? That it has taken as many lives as it has thorns is certainly true. However, is it not also true that its sweet aromas have brought just as many souls together in love? The sword’s genuine origin is unknown, but legends say that it was first gifted by the goddess Aphrodite to a beautiful youth as a token of her affection. Though he was no soldier, he proudly displayed it on his hip, and everywhere he went he left a trail of perfumed rose petals. No matter how many flowers the sword lost, that same number grew back onto the cross-guard by dawn. Women fawned over him endlessly, and the roses seemed to grow ever more sanguine and plump. One day, a woman’s jealous husband caught the couple red-handed and saw fit to run the youth through with his own floral sword.
His blood trickled down the blade and the roses seemed to drink it in, their crimson petals multiplying into larger and larger blooms. All who breathed in the saccharine aroma of the flowers found themselves gripped by a sudden bacchanalian hunger for flesh. Whether indulged or denied, the hunger soon grew from carnal to carnivorous. When the blood finally began to dry, the sword’s petals shriveled and fell from the hilt, leaving only small pink buds behind.
Ever since that massacre of antiquity, the Cytherean Sword has passed from hand to hand, leaving dead Casanovas in its wake. For the flesh is weak, and the sword drinks deep.
-4.25” x 5.5” card & red envelope
-Blank inside
-Printed on 100lb Cardstock
-Made in USA
About the Artist
Jennifer Smart is a documentary editor and illustration hobbyist based in Washington, D.C. Her artistic niche is mythological creatures and cryptids with a dark fantasy, eldritch twist. Everything's better with at least two too many limbs and eyes in places they don't belong. Delve deeper into the cosmic horrors at www.etsy.com/shop/LehenProductions and on Instagram @jaesmart.
What can be said of the Cytherean Sword? That it has taken as many lives as it has thorns is certainly true. However, is it not also true that its sweet aromas have brought just as many souls together in love? The sword’s genuine origin is unknown, but legends say that it was first gifted by the goddess Aphrodite to a beautiful youth as a token of her affection. Though he was no soldier, he proudly displayed it on his hip, and everywhere he went he left a trail of perfumed rose petals. No matter how many flowers the sword lost, that same number grew back onto the cross-guard by dawn. Women fawned over him endlessly, and the roses seemed to grow ever more sanguine and plump. One day, a woman’s jealous husband caught the couple red-handed and saw fit to run the youth through with his own floral sword.
His blood trickled down the blade and the roses seemed to drink it in, their crimson petals multiplying into larger and larger blooms. All who breathed in the saccharine aroma of the flowers found themselves gripped by a sudden bacchanalian hunger for flesh. Whether indulged or denied, the hunger soon grew from carnal to carnivorous. When the blood finally began to dry, the sword’s petals shriveled and fell from the hilt, leaving only small pink buds behind.
Ever since that massacre of antiquity, the Cytherean Sword has passed from hand to hand, leaving dead Casanovas in its wake. For the flesh is weak, and the sword drinks deep.
-4.25” x 5.5” card & red envelope
-Blank inside
-Printed on 100lb Cardstock
-Made in USA
About the Artist
Jennifer Smart is a documentary editor and illustration hobbyist based in Washington, D.C. Her artistic niche is mythological creatures and cryptids with a dark fantasy, eldritch twist. Everything's better with at least two too many limbs and eyes in places they don't belong. Delve deeper into the cosmic horrors at www.etsy.com/shop/LehenProductions and on Instagram @jaesmart.
What can be said of the Cytherean Sword? That it has taken as many lives as it has thorns is certainly true. However, is it not also true that its sweet aromas have brought just as many souls together in love? The sword’s genuine origin is unknown, but legends say that it was first gifted by the goddess Aphrodite to a beautiful youth as a token of her affection. Though he was no soldier, he proudly displayed it on his hip, and everywhere he went he left a trail of perfumed rose petals. No matter how many flowers the sword lost, that same number grew back onto the cross-guard by dawn. Women fawned over him endlessly, and the roses seemed to grow ever more sanguine and plump. One day, a woman’s jealous husband caught the couple red-handed and saw fit to run the youth through with his own floral sword.
His blood trickled down the blade and the roses seemed to drink it in, their crimson petals multiplying into larger and larger blooms. All who breathed in the saccharine aroma of the flowers found themselves gripped by a sudden bacchanalian hunger for flesh. Whether indulged or denied, the hunger soon grew from carnal to carnivorous. When the blood finally began to dry, the sword’s petals shriveled and fell from the hilt, leaving only small pink buds behind.
Ever since that massacre of antiquity, the Cytherean Sword has passed from hand to hand, leaving dead Casanovas in its wake. For the flesh is weak, and the sword drinks deep.
-4.25” x 5.5” card & red envelope
-Blank inside
-Printed on 100lb Cardstock
-Made in USA
About the Artist
Jennifer Smart is a documentary editor and illustration hobbyist based in Washington, D.C. Her artistic niche is mythological creatures and cryptids with a dark fantasy, eldritch twist. Everything's better with at least two too many limbs and eyes in places they don't belong. Delve deeper into the cosmic horrors at www.etsy.com/shop/LehenProductions and on Instagram @jaesmart.
