Deadly Beauty

I found this over on skecthdump. Brandon Reese is the artist that runs this site. He is quite talented and his art varies greatly. Stop on by and check it out.


©brandon reese 2005 used w/permission

When I look at this image I recall the stories of old, told again and again about the monsters of the deep and how giant octopuses attacked ships. Sailors would come home with stories of lost seamen pulled overboard by these creatures of the deep.

While I doubt that they actually used flowers to attract their victims you can see below that their tentacles do have a flower like quality to them. Maybe in 650bc when Homer's Odyssey was all the rage and he wrote of Skylla a many headed many feet sea creature (most likely a giant octopus) this is the way these giant octopuses hunted by floating near the surface and luring sailors with their flower like tentacles.

Of course now they are boring and the octopus will hunt by hiding in it's hole and waiting for unsuspecting prey (Often crabs or clams after the octopus is mature enough to handle these ) to come within reach. Then they pull the prey in for an evening meal.


Suckers of a giant Pacific octopus. Picture: Jim Cosgrove.