Marie Corelli's name was really Mary Mackay, and she spent her childhood and teen years in a convent boarding school. For someone raised among Catholic Sisters she naturally had a lurid imagination. That imagination brought out a wealth of lurid scenes once she had started her fantasy writing career. In this scene, Lysia the Snake Priestess is in her pleasure dome, surrounded by admirers, who hopelessly await access to her charms.
Most of the males survive the orgy and ordeal, but every so often someone makes a mistake; he heedlessly insults Lysia, or perhaps gets a bit too drunk and tries to touch Her, or perhaps just becomes boring. When the admirer loses, it's not just his reputation, it's his life. Lysia has a special poison set aside for failures and with the "help" of the giant muscleman servant, is forced to drink the potion. The author describes in thrilling horror how grotesquely he dies, while the drunken partygoers giggle and laugh. I depicted the evil brew with a ghostly gaseous snake which will eliminate any challenge to Lysia's power, because she is EEEeevil.
Acrylic on Strathmore illustration board, 18" x 24", summer 1988. This picture was sent to NoLaCon, the New Orleans Worldcon. It was bought there and I never have to see the original again. Click on image for a larger view.
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