Cú Chullain and Ferdiad Print

It's a depiction of Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad, heroes of Irish mythology and childhood best friends who grew into lovers. Although the texts say that they shared a bed, and they made long declarations of love and physical admiration to each other, their queerness is usually erased from retellings of the story.

They eventually found themselves on opposite sides of a civil war and faced each other in single combat as champions of opposing sides. Cú Chulainn killed Ferdiad after 3 days of evenly matched combat and then left the battlefield and, carrying his lover's body, waded across a river and brought him back to his mother. Though tragic, it is a beautiful story of love and duty.

I have depicted them in 19th century costume as the laws prohibiting homosexuality were created in 1861 and here the battle that has killed poor Ferdiad is with erasure and invisibilty.