History/Mythology in Xena

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (xenawp7706) — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:08:57 GMT

Yeah this thread is very interesting

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (LadyKate63) — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:25:10 GMT

Hey darthvertigo! Glad you've enjoyed the discussion. I hope you come back and tell us more about your thoughts on X:WP upon your second viewing!

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (darthvertigo) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:58:35 GMT

Wow, what a fun discussion! Thanks everyone!

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (gravitystar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:23:46 GMT

Oh no lol. Just being able to throw my dissertation knowledge into the mix was fun.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (LadyKate63) — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:17:21 GMT

Hope I wasn't being too argumentative, gravitystar.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (athenasword) — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:07:25 GMT

That hungry little boy she met on the road probably said it best.

"She came down out of the sky in a chariot throwing thunderbolts and breathing fire."

Well she can breathe fire, and the chakram is like a thunderbolt.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (gravitystar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:42:08 GMT

Fair enough. I wasn't trying to argue. Just that there may have been two ways to deal with it. Either give her bad publicity or ignore her completely. Xena in her warlord days may have been someone to keep an eye on and perhaps even portray in a negative way, like Boadicca who would have caused problems yes. But as the stories we would have gotten from the Xena Scrolls are the ones where only she and Gabrielle are traveling together, she would have been in the background of most events,...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (LadyKate63) — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:41:09 GMT

gravitystar, I'm really not disagreeing with you by and large -- I agree that warrior women and powerful women in general were often portrayed in negative ways by (male) ancient Greek and Roman historians. I'm just disagreeing with the idea that information about them was suppressed. As I said, they were generally regarded with a mix of fascination and revulsion. That's true of the Amazons too, they are often portrayed negatively but are sometimes shown as marrying the great...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (joxerfan) — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:00:20 GMT

Greek women do not fight.

LOL - try sayin' that to a Greek woman!

Hinduism was the biggest backlash

Although to be fair - there are approx. 1 billion Hindus in the world, but there weren't 1 billion complaints about Xena... or even a thousandth of 1% of a billion. It was a few leaders from one...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (gravitystar) — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:15:38 GMT

What she said lol.

They lived the life of men, and not of women. And they even were said to have lived the life of men without the noble and civilized aspect to their lives, making them more barbaric and uncivilized. They were portrayed to live the life opposite to the Athenian women, and therefore were made out to be savages in an attempt to show the women of Athens and the Greek world what happens when they step out of the normal boundries.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (athenasword) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:41:04 GMT

Women don't fight. Greek women do not fight. Greek women are sheltered by men. The Amazons are non-Greek women, unsheltered by men, who fight. They are devoted to Thracian Ares, hated by Athens, who represents unchecked bloodshed and barbarism, and Artemis, who represents the untamed wild that lies outside civilized walls.

Therefore they are foreign savages to gods of uncivilzed savagery, and since the accounts are Greek, they have Greek perspectives only.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (xenawp7706) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:20:03 GMT

All very interesting things. So the Amazons were considered bad? Why?

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (gravitystar) — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:25:58 GMT

If we're going down the "women warriors were credited" route by bringing in the Amazons then I'm going to have to stress a point (having done all this in my dissertation recently). The Amazons were mostly mentioned in a negative context, and were in fact possibly based upon a small tribe of female warriors. The Greeks would have exaggerated this and made them appear more savage than they were, if they had in fact existed. There are a couple of accounts in which they were...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (TheJollyApe) — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:53:03 GMT

If a woman like Xena had existed, I'm sure she would have had a pretty prominent place in the works of ancient Greek and Roman historians (most of whom tended to be fascinated with everything unusual)

Well she was an enemy to (the beginnings of) the Roman Empire. I'm thinking that would have forced her into non-existence no matter her female status. She questioned and attacked what would become a very powerful empire. The most effective way for...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (Daughter of Tiaran) — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:06:18 GMT

CF--they're doing Rifftrax now if you really miss them a lot. They're all good, or at least all the ones we've tried, but some of them--in particular the ones for "Battlefield Earth" and "Transformers"--are screamingly hilarious.

hey, didn't MST3K do a Herc movie? Not our Herc, unfortunately

They...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (CasualFan) — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:29:45 GMT

"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts
Just repeat to yourself it's just a show
I should really just relax!"

Damn, I miss Joel, Mike and the 'bots - hey, didn't MST3K do a Herc movie? Not our Herc, unfortunately - it was one of those Steve Reeves epics from the 50's, complete with badly dubbed Italian actors and lots of baby...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (LadyKate63) — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:00:04 GMT

Daughter of Tiaran wrote:
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts
Just repeat to yourself it's just a show
I should really just relax!"

Yeah, that's pretty much what Steve Sears said at the con the other day.

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (athenasword) — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:18:53 GMT

The Asians I know, in my family who I forced to watch The Debts with, as well as Asian fans, didn't seem to care, in fact they laughed at the historical bent they took on it.

The only time a cringe is particularly noteworthy (besides the Classics teachers who have to deal with passionate Xenites) are when the show interferes with a major living religion. On Xena, those were Christianity and Hinduism.

Watch the commentaries for Fallen Angel et al. and Tapert says that...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (joxerfan) — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:46:40 GMT

It's also really weird how sometimes in the later and more historic settings (i.e. Caesar and his heirs) we see fairly straightforward depictions of historic events, just with Xena added (e.g. Caesar and Pompey really were friendly rivals for power, then enemies, young Caesar really was captured by pirates, Antony really did fall for Cleopatra and then lose a major naval battle to the Romans, Caligula really did claim he was a god, etc.) But other times there is this odd alternate...

Re: History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (Daughter of Tiaran) — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:02:18 GMT

"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts
Just repeat to yourself it's just a show
I should really just relax!"

:

History/Mythology in Xena

feeds@yuku.com (darthvertigo) — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:20:50 GMT

I just started watching Season 2 (I'm going through the series for a second time), and have just finished the one featuring David and Goliath. I must have been not paying attention when I watched the show the first time, because I don't remember this episode.

What it made me wonder is how they (producers, cast, writers, fans, whoever) explain Xena's involvement with the ancient Israelites, the fall of Lucifer, and Julius Caesar ... all completely different points in...