Hey Xena fans, this special post is my stab at unraveling some of the geographical and chronological clues in the first season of Xena. Why am I doing this? Well, I’m a continuity guy, so I like it when the episodes fit together in a logical order and I like to figure out where Xena and Gabi’s adventures are taking place in each episode. Naturally, the writers at the time were usually more concerned with telling good (or great) stories instead of with making everything fit together logically, so a lot of the place names and travel times in the episodes don’t really make sense. The writers did use real Greek locations in some episodes, but sometimes they probably either made names up, or picked them at random off a map of Ancient Greece. Add to that the difficulty of pronouncing those old Greek
names (and variations in spelling when transliterating to English) and it can get kinda confusing. So I’ll do my best to sort out the various references, but I’m also going to speculate a lot (and make some leaps in logic to get things to fit better). I’m not saying my interpretation is the definitive one, it’s just my best attempt to make everything fit together a bit better. In the end, this really doesn’t matter; the episodes are great without a perfect continuity, but as I said I’m a continuity guy, so I actually enjoy these convolutions of logic. If examining the minutiae of Xena and Gabi’s first season adventures isn’t your thing, feel free to skip this post; the first review of the second season will be up next Wednesday as usual.
I’ll go episode by episode (in the order they aired), just to make things easier, looking at the various clues in each one. I won’t provide links to each episode, since you can just use “Xena Season 1 Reviews” in the tag cloud to
access them all. At the end, I’ll suggest a possible viewing order that might make the continuity flow better. Of course, we don’t know (unless there are specific references) how much time passes between episodes. Personally, I think Xena is training Gabi constantly and they’re probably having unrecorded adventures between episodes, so they could theoretically have time to travel the length and breadth of the Known World from one show to the next. You can click on the map images for a closer view; thanks to getdrawings.com for the blank map of Ancient Greece that I used.
1. Sins of the Past: Obviously this episode has to come first. The main references are to Poteidaia and Amphipolis, both of which are real places in Thrace. The cities are about 50 miles or so apart as the crow flies, but probably a little more if travelling by road. Gabi probably went a little faster because she stuck to the roads (and got a lift), while Xena went across country. I think Xena was so worried about what sort of reception she was going to get, she probably lollygagged a bit, taking a circuitous route to
delay the inevitable. When she learned of Draco’s plans for Amphipolis, that’s when she hastened straight there, only beating Gabi by a few hours.
2. Chariots of War: This is a logical follow-up to the pilot since Xena and Gabi are still getting acquainted. The only geographical reference is to the Miletus (or Meleatus, or Melitus, or whatever) River. I couldn’t find a river by that name, but there was a town in Achaea called Melitaea that was close to a river. So maybe when Xena says “Meleatus River”, she’s actually saying “Melitaea’s River”, in other words, the river that lies near Melitaea. I know it’s a stretch, but it fits geographically if we assume Xena and Gabi travelled southwest into Greece after leaving Amphipolis.
3. Dreamworker: This episode feels like it could take place later, since Xena and Gabi have more of a rapport and obviously care about each other a lot. I’m tempted to just switch this one with Death in Chains, but I think this
one probably needs to come before The Reckoning, since that’s where Xena and Gabi describe each other as “best friends”. The only geographical clue in this one is that it takes place in the mountains, which could be pretty much anywhere in Greece. There’s a mention of the Albanian mines of the Skanderbeg, which sounds like a place-name; but Skanderbeg was a person, a freedom fighter who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s CE, long after Xena’s time. So I’m not sure what the reference is meant to be … probably the writer just thought it sounded cool.
4. Cradle of Hope: Another episode that has to be relatively early. In the next episode, Gabi mentions that Gregor is King of Lerna, which is in the Peloponnese, just south of Argos (see the Peloponnese map below).
5. The Path Not Taken: This episode has to occur right after the previous one, since Gabi mentions the events of that episode in the teaser. This one mainly takes place in (or around) Trachis, which is in the middle of Greece, near the Malian Gulf. Mezentius is provoking a war between Boeotia and Colonus (which is just outside Athens). Those regions are a fair distance from Trachis, but since Mezentius is an arms dealer, it makes sense he’d
deal with customers in remote locations.
6. The Reckoning: There aren’t any real geographical clues in this one, so it could take place almost anywhere. The fact that Xena and Gabi consider each other best friends suggests that this takes place after the earlier episodes (including Death in Chains, which aired after this) where they’re still getting to know each other.
7. The Titans: Again, no geographical clues in this one. I’m tempted to move this one forward, since Xena and Gabi are still a bit awkward with each other, especially Gabi when she’s lying about her virginity and risking her life to prove herself to Xena. But Gabi refers to getting captured in Path Not Taken, which has to come after Cradle of Hope, so this episode can’t precede those. It could (and logically should) come before the Reckoning though.
8. Prometheus: In the original myth, Prometheus was chained in the Caucasus Mountains, which are way on the other side of the Black Sea. In the Xena RPG (which may or may not count as canon, but was written by George Strayton and Tom O’Neill who later worked on the show), they say Prometheus was chained in Scythia, which was also in the Caucasus Mountains. But that could refer to the first time Prometheus was chained
(when he was freed by Hercules alone). I think the Caucasus is a bit too far, but there was a region referred to as Scythia Minor that extended along the west coast of the Black Sea, so maybe Prometheus’s second imprisonment was there. The story could actually start almost anywhere (Xena hearing Prometheus’s screams could be a mythological thing, where the screams where heard all over the Earth because Prometheus’s chaining affected humanity so strongly), with the four heroes travelling to Scythia Minor during the episode. Same with Vulcan Mountain; it could lie anywhere, so we can just assume it was between wherever Xena and Gabi started out and their final destination of Scythia Minor. I like Scythia Minor as the location for Prometheus because if we move Death in Chains forward, the next episode after this one is Hooves and Harlots, which takes place in Amazon territory … most likely southwest of the Black Sea. So it makes sense Xena and Gabi would pass through there on there way back to Greece.
9. Death in Chains: Sisyphus is King of Corinth, so this episode has to take place there. This episode feels like it could take place much earlier (and according to the production number, it was the third episode written), mostly
because of Xena’s strange reaction when Gabi hugs her at the end. If they’d already been through The Reckoning, Dreamworker, and Prometheus, I can’t imagine Xena reacting that way. But if this actually was the third episode of the season, Xena’s reaction would fit. Of course, there’s the matter of Gabi’s Amazon skirt, but that’s a continuity mistake no matter what (since this episode was shot after Hooves and Harlots). But Gabi doesn’t fight in this one, so there’s no reason it can’t take place earlier, as long as we chalk the skirt up to an early fashion choice Gabi tried and discarded temporarily.
10. Hooves and Harlots: This one takes place in Amazon territory (see the map above), which is probably located southwest of the Black Sea, east of Amphipolis. (There’s a really good write-up about it over at Whoosh.) That fits with Xena and Gabi returning from Scythia Minor in Prometheus (if we move Death in Chains forward in the rotation). There are some incongruities later with the location of the Ixion Stone, but I’ll try to deal with those next season.
11. Black Wolf: Xerxes addresses the citizens of Argos, which was a fairly important city in the Peloponnese, just north of Lerna. But there were at least four other places in Greece called Argos and I think maybe the one called Argos Orestiko is a better candidate for this episode’s location, since it’s in the northern part of Greece. It makes sense Xena and Gabi would pass through it on their way down from Thrace. Xena mentions Argo not having new shoes since they left Corinth (i.e. since Death in Chains), but that doesn’t necessarily mean they just left Corinth. If we place Death in Chains
earlier in the season (say, as the third episode), then Xena means Argo hasn’t had new shoes (nor Xena new boots) for about eight episodes, which fits with them being worn out.
12. Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts: This one obviously takes place in Troy, but in the teaser Gabi says they should’ve stocked up on provisions while they were at Mount Poulis. Mount Poulis is the final location of A Fistful of Dinars and this episode was shot right after that one (hence Gabi’s reference). So it makes sense to push this episode back so it comes right after Fistful of Dinars.
13. Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards: This one takes place mostly in Athens obviously, but Xena mentions heading to Keramus, which could refer to Cerames, located just outside Athens. That would explain how Gabi found Xena so easily at the end of the episode, since they weren’t that far apart. There are other places called Keramus (or something close to that) on Crete and in Asia Minor, but I can’t imagine Xena went that far. If we move Beware Greeks back a bit, this episode fits with Xena and Gabi travelling south after leaving Argos Orestiko in Black Wolf.
14. A Fistful of Dinars: As I mentioned above, this one fits right before Beware Greeks because of Gabi’s Mount Poulis reference in that episode. That suggests this must take place (or at least end) in Asia Minor; it could start almost anywhere, with Xena learning about the Sumerian treasure in
Greece and deciding to go after it. The Temple of Demeter could be located anywhere too, most likely between Greece and Asia Minor somewhere. (Gabi says they’re from Nonamia and came across the big water.) The Peis territory (or however it should be spelled) could refer to the Paionians (or Paiones in Greek), whose territory was in Macedonia, well north of Poteidaia. Depending on where Demeter’s temple was, they could’ve passed through that territory on their way to Asia Minor. Or maybe in Xena’s world (which I consider to be a parallel world to ours, with a different history and possibly a different geography) the Paiones territory extends farther east, into Asia Minor. They were said to have fought for Troy during the Trojan War, so maybe their lands were closer to that city in the Xenaverse than in real life. I couldn’t find a Mount Poulis anywhere (or any volcanoes in northern Asia Minor), so maybe it only exists in Xena’s world too.
15. Warrior … Princess: In various episodes, King Lias’s kingdom (called
Treus) is said to be about a day’s travel from both Corinth and Thebes, which would put it right in the middle, somewhere in the Corinthian isthmus. I couldn’t find anything even close to Treus (or any variant spellings) in that area, so I guess it only existed in Xena’s universe. Same with Liberium, the Kingdom whose royal family Diana is marrying into.
16. Mortal Beloved: This one could start anywhere, but has Xena and Gabi travelling to the Alcyonian Lake so Xena can descend to the Underworld. The Alcyonian Lake was apparently a real place, in the swampy regions just south of Lerna. In real life, the Lake was supposedly bottomless and really
did contain a portal to the Underworld. The other place mentioned in this episode is Pylos, which is on the other side of the Peloponnese from the Lake. Actually, there were two places called Pylos in the western Peloponnese, one farther north than the other. Either of them would be about fifty or sixty miles away, which explains why it took two days for Xena and company to get there. I’m leaning toward the northernmost Pylos being the one they end up at, since it’s a little bit closer, as well as a smaller town (because the place they were in looked pretty small).
17. The Royal Couple of Thieves: This one starts on the mainland (presumably in a port), but quickly moves to an unnamed island. Arkel tells them it will take all night to reach the island, which if we assume a rowing
(or sailing) speed of around 4 knots and a travel time of eight hours or so, would mean the island is about 30 to 40 miles offshore. There are plenty of islands that fit the bill in the Aegean, but due to some considerations in the next episode, my best guess is that the island in question is Thasos, in the upper Aegean, not far from the coast. It’s big enough to have villages and forests, and it apparently had some natural resources that would’ve made it attractive to a guy like Malthus. Xena, Gabi, and Autolycus could’ve started off in any port within thirty or so miles of Thasos and returned to a different port, which leads into next episode.
18. The Prodigal: This one starts with Xena and Gabi trying to take a short cut through a rocky pass when they run into the bandits. Xena mentions doubling back and taking the (longer) coastal route. It would make sense they’d be close to a coast if they’d just returned from Malthus’s island, but which coast? After Gabi heads off for Poteidaia, she looks at her map and
says she has “another 22 leagues” to go. If we assume a modern league of three miles, that would put her within a 66 mile radius of Poteidaia. But that’s in a straight line; going by road, she could technically be closer than 66 miles, but the more bends in the road, the farther she’d have to go. On a modern map of Greece, I found a route from Poteidaia to a point on the coast a bit west of Amphipolis that’s about 70 miles. If we assume today’s highways follow the same route as the ancient roads (due to landforms and so on), Gabi and Xena could’ve started near the coast, not too far from Amphipolis. It’s my theory that they were actually heading for Amphipolis to see Xena’s mom when the bandits attacked. That could be what gave Gabi the idea to go home to sort her problems out, since Xena was headed home already. I think Xena and Gabi probably stop in Amphipolis whenever they’re in the neighbourhood, to see Cyrene. Xena is rebuilding her relationship with her mom, so it makes sense she’s stop in every now and then (as opposed to Gabi, who apparently hasn’t been back to Poteidaia since she left … probably because she knows Xena isn’t welcome there). In later episodes, we’ll see that Gabi and Cyrene are very friendly and quite comfortable with each other, which fits my theory of Xena and Gabi dropping in to visit whenever they’re nearby. That explains why Gabi went back through that same pass when looking for Xena, and why Xena ran into her there at the end; that’s part of the route between Poteidaia and Amphipolis. It could also explain why she ran into the same old guy from Sins of the Past; if he’s some kind of merchant, his regular route could be on the roads between Amphipolis and Poteidaia.
19. Altared States: There are no geographical clues in this episode, so it could take place anywhere.
20. Ties That Bind: The village in this episode is called Lotia (or Locia, or something like that), but I couldn’t find anything resembling that name, even under variant spellings. So this could take place pretty much anywhere too; I guess we’ll just assume Lotia was a tiny village that never made it onto the maps.
21. The Greater Good: The village in this episode isn’t named either, but Gabi does mention going to what sounds like “Labottie” for help from Iolaus; she could be referring to Lebadea, which was a small town in Boeotia. That would mean the village would have to be pretty close to Lebadea if Gabi expected to get there and back in decent time.
22. Callisto: This episode has to come right after the previous one because of the dart attack on Xena. It seems to start out relatively close to Corinth,
but they end up going to Delphi later to stop Callisto from killing the Oracle. Ironically, Delphi was quite close to Callisto’s village of Cirrha (which was actually the port for Delphi in real life), so when Xena chases Callisto down to the shore, they were probably very close to where Cirrha used to be. Maybe Callisto planned it that way, striking at Delphi precisely because it was close to Cirrha and Xena’s guilt would be amplified by the proximity. It also makes sense that Callisto’s camp would be fairly close to the remains of Cirrha.
23. Death Mask: There are no geographical clues in this episode, so it could take place anywhere. It was shot before some of the other late-season episodes and could conceivably work earlier. Either before or after Altared States could work pretty well; seeing her brother and reliving what Cortese did to their village (and finally bringing him to justice) could explain the way Xena dealt with Icus in Altared States, why she was so eager to accept Atrius as her father in Ties That Bind, and her whole “greater good” riff in the episode of that name. Talking Toris out of killing Cortese (and reliving what Cortese did to her village) might’ve also coloured the way she dealt with Callisto, making Xena more prone to mercy.
24. Is There a Doctor in the House?: This one is hard to place, since it involves a war between Thessaly (a real location) and Mitoa (which as far as I can tell never existed). Mitoa has to be on the border of Thessaly and Xena says the forest they’re going through is the fastest way to Athens, but that still doesn’t make Mitoa any less made-up. If I had to guess, I’d say Mitoa
could be in Epirus (west or southwest of Thessaly), which was considered to be a bit lawless in ancient times, and populated by barbarians (the Mitoans mention that they worship different gods than the Greeks). That doesn’t quite fit if the previous episode is Callisto (since the shortest way to Athens from Delphi would be nowhere near Thessaly), but if we leave Death Mask in place and assume it took place somewhere in Epirus (a good place for a bandit like Cortese to establish himself), then it could work. Originally, Doctor in the House wasn’t meant to be the season finale, but it kept getting pushed back. I think it works as the season-ender though, since Gabi needs time to recover from her extensive injuries, and the summer hiatus (if we assume a few months passed in the Xenaverse too) gives her that time.
So, if we take all that into consideration, we could get a slightly different episode order for Season 1, one that fits the continuity a little better:
1. Sins of the Past 13. A Fistful of Dinars
2. Chariots of War 14. Beware Greeks …
3. Death in Chains 15. Warrior … Princess
4. Dreamworker 16. Mortal Beloved
5. Cradle of Hope 17. Royal Couple of Thieves
6. The Path Not Taken 18. The Prodigal
7. The Titans 19. Altared States
8. The Reckoning 20. Ties That Bind
9. Prometheus 21. The Greater Good
10. Hooves and Harlots 22. Callisto
11. Black Wolf 23. Death Mask
12. Athens City Academy … 24. Doctor in the House
Dreamworker could conceivably come later (maybe after The Titans), but it works in fourth place too. And Death Mask could be between Prodigal and Altared States (or between Altared States and Ties That Bind), but it helps the continuity of the next episode if it stays in 23rd place. So, that’s my take
on the geography and continuity for Season 1. If I’ve missed anything, or you have anything to add (or disagree with my conclusions) let me know in the comments and I’ll see you next Wednesday for the first review of Season 2. (There’s another very thorough write-up on this topic by someone named CR at Whoosh, so be sure to check it out. I tried to get in touch with the author, but their email is no longer valid, so if by any chance you’re reading this CR, thanks for the inspiration and I’d love to hear what you think of my take on all this.)