Long ago, when the earth was still young, the ancient Gods were petty and cruel and they plagued mankind
with suffering, beseiging them with terrors.
You've met Ares now prepare to meet the rest of the Olympian Pantheon.
Growing up in Ancient Greece where all sorts of mythical creatures are common place and various warlords attack your village on an almost regular basis, Faith would be a very good thing to hold onto.
With all aspects of your day to day life uncertain – from meals to livelihood, almost every common family gave homage to at least one deity. Each town or village had temples dedicated to their chosen God or Goddess. Many villagers left tokens and tributes in the temples in hopes of winning favor and continued protection from marauders or even a bad harvest.
Unfortunately for these poor simple villagers, the Pantheon of Gods they had chosen to worship was the Olympians. This family of Gods is petty and cruel, striking fear into the hearts of their worshippers.
And so neither deserve nor earn respect from the Warrior Princess or Battling Bard. Over the years, they have had mainly negative experiences in dealing with them. How have the Greek gods affected Xena and Gabrielle? Here we take a look at several of the Gods and Goddesses to illustrate that our girls have rarely had a positive interaction with the gods they know.
Gabrielle is attacking a poor, defenseless tree with Xena's sword. After issuing a few threats, she is disturbed by Xena who wants her sword back and who reminds Gabrielle that it is not a toy. Gabrielle tries to persuade Xena to teach her how to use it but her friend refuses, saying that would make Gabrielle a target. Instead, she teaches Gabrielle the rules of survival, which mostly involve running away.
Xena and Gabrielle's friendly banter is interrupted by the arrival of a band of highwaymen who attempt to rob the pair. Naturally, Xena isn't going to give up without a fight and she attacks the men. However, she drops her sword and Gabrielle picks it up.
Xena and Gabrielle enter a village. Gabrielle is a little shaken over becoming a target once she picked up the sword. Xena looks smug. They arrange to pick up some supplies in the town and meet up later.
Xena enters a shop, intent on buying a sharpening stone and some oil. The storekeeper asks a few questions about Gabrielle and Xena gets suspicious.
Gabrielle enters a swordsmith's shop. The swordsmith looks surprised to see her and wonders why she's in town. He presumes she has nothing to fear from Morpheus, the god of dreams. Gabrielle is confused by his questions but soon has the swordsmith convinced she is a great warrior. He shows her a beautiful sword but it's a bit heavy for Gabrielle so he presents a breast dagger to her, which he pops down her blouse. Gabrielle is delighted with her new weapon!
Xena exits the storekeeper's shop and passes the halter to Elkton. He thanks his unseen helper who does not stop but goes to meet up with Gabrielle.
As they continue talking, Xena is distracted as a group of mystics ride into town, heading towards them. There is a fight and, in the confusion, Xena loses sight of Gabrielle. After the battle, she discovers the mystics have kidnapped Gabrielle.
In Morpheus' temple within the fortress, the high priest Manus informs his god of his new bride-to-be. Manus then visits Gabrielle in her cell and tells her she has been chosen as Morpheus' bride.
Xena seeks out the wary Elkton. Realising she was the one who helped him earlier, he tells her of Manus' cult and how the mystical order was once good but is now tainted by evil. He informs her that they want Gabrielle to lose her blood innocence. Once she has done this, she is to be sacrificed.
Horrified, Xena prepares to ride to the fortress but Elkton tells her it would take too long and that she must enter her dreamscape and defeat Morpheus there.
Her soul will enter this realm whilst her body remains in the physical world. Once she has passed through the dreamscape into the exit door, her soul will reunite with her body. If she fails to do this, her body will die. Elkton tells Xena to hurry as he pours oil onto her body, vowing to guard it from danger.
Xena finds herself in a blue-lit corridor, wearing a rather fetching purple, silk dressing gown. She hears the sound of approaching warriors and they are chanting her name and boasting of her past victories. Xena reminds them she has changed but they tell her she can't change before marching on.
Then, Xena's past victims appear to her, each one giving their name and listing those of their loved ones she killed. Xena starts to get more and more agitated as her victims crowd round her but she won't kill them. Instead, she lets Morpheus know that she realises this is a trick to slow her down.
Manus is told by Morpheus that Gabrielle's friend is trying to rescue her. Manus instructs one of the mystic warriors to find Xena's body and Elkton and kill them both. Elkton, meanwhile, realises that Xena hasn't got much time. Her life is being drained too quickly so he decides to take her body to a safer place.
In the meantime, Gabrielle faces her first challenge. She is given a sword, taken to a room and told to find her way to the other side of it. Manus tells her there are two warriors in there who will try to stop her but she must stop them first.
Xena's dreamscape overlaps with Gabrielle's dream and they meet. Xena is able to warn Gabrielle that Manus wants her to kill and that she mustn't do that at any cost. If she does, she will be sacrificed to Morpheus. Xena tells Gabrielle to use what she knows and is good at (i.e. talking!) to keep herself alive until Xena can reach her. Gabrielle does not appear to hear her as she is being woken up by Manus.
He tells her to prepare for her next challenge and that she should use the sword to defend herself. She grabs the mystic and holds the sword to his throat but relents and lets him go, realising that if she killed him she would be sacrificed anyway.
Manus informs her that he knows about Xena and that his soldiers are looking for her body and will kill her as soon as they find her. In fact, the mystic warrior is in pursuit of Elkton, searching for wagon tracks. Elkton, meanwhile, has run out of N'Kama oil.
Gabrielle is sent into another room to face another challenge. As soon as she enters, she throws her sword away. She realises she is good at talking and she uses this to trick her three opponents to fight each other as Manus looks on.
As he releases her from the room, he scowls, realising she knows Morpheus requires her to spill blood. He tells her that in the next challenge, she will have no choice but to kill.
Xena is back in the passageway. Gothos, Xena's last kill, turns up, along with Termin, Xena's first kill. They taunt Xena about her own lost blood innocence and tell her Gabrielle will soon be the same as her.
Angrily, Xena draws on her strength to rid herself of her tormentors and is weakened as a result. Struggling, she heads for the way out, only to be confronted by her dark self. The dark Xena tries to tempt Xena back to being her old self. In response, Xena fights her dark self.
Xena is taunted by her dark self and still she fights on. Meanwhile, Elkton has been found and the warriors hold him back as one of them gets ready to strike Xena's body. Back at the fortress, Manus loses his temper, ordering Gabrielle to take the sword.
Xena realises her dark self is a part of her she can't escape from but also that this is the key to her escape. She hurls her dark self at the door and walks through, just as the mystic warrior strikes at the empty space where her body had been lying moments before. Xena rescues Gabrielle (who can't resist punching Manus first!) and they return to the village.
Elkton has somehow regained his sight and has now been reinstated as Head Mystic. He tells Xena that, as punishment, Manus has been placed inside his own dreamscape to face his past demons. Satisfied they have saved the village from losing any more of their young women to Morpheus, Xena and Gabrielle leave to continue their travels together.
Xena: "Ready to go?"
Gabrielle: "Xena, I could have killed someone. I mean, I was capable of it."
Xena: "We're all capable of it. The point is, you didn't cross that line."
Gabrielle: "But I got close enough to peak over, and what I saw scared me."
Xena: "See how calm the surface of the lake is? That was me once, and then ... the water ripples and churns. That's what I became."
Gabrielle: "But, if we sit here long enough it will go back to being still again, go back to being calm."
Xena: "But, the stone is still under there. It's now part of the lake. It may look as it did before, but it's forever changed."
As they stop by a lake, Gabrielle contemplates how near she came to killing, whilst Xena explains she once was calm like the water but how she was forever changed by outside events. Gabrielle smiles at Xena's "first stab at wisdom".
Despite Morpheus’ priests almost sacrificing Gabrielle in his name, Hades – the Olympian God of the Underworld asks Xena for help when his sister is in trouble….
The tricky King Sisyphus captures Death (Celesta - Hades` sister). While she`s chained, people can not die. The god Hades comes up from the Underworld, and asks Xena to help set her free and restore order to the world. However, a nasty bad guy Toxeus who Xena has killed comes back to life and leads his men to keep Xena from restoring death. Meanwhile, Gabrielle meets another nice young man named Talus who helps Xena get into Sisyphus` castle. Another doomed romance for Gabrielle.
This would not be the last time Xena & Gabrielle encounter Hades but it would be one of the more civil times spent with the brother of death.
Xena and Gabrielle are on their way to a temple to honor Xena's brother, Lyceus.
Then there is shouting -- the temple is being attacked. Xena and Gabrielle rush outside; a fight ensues. Gabrielle shouts for Xena to look behind her and Xena turns, and sticks a sword into a guy's stomach. His helmet falls off, revealing him to be a very very young man, if not quite still a child. Xena looks at the blood-stained sword and throws it to the ground in disgust. She goes inside the temple and leans against the wall, weary.
Then the 3 Fates appear. They tell Xena they are in her debt because she defended their temple. What does she want in return? Xena says she wants that young boy to be alive; she wishes she'd never become a warrior, she spouts. And then her wish is granted. The Fates tell her all will be as if she never lived, so long as she spills no blood in anger. Xena goes outside the temple; there are no bodies, and no Gabrielle.
Xena goes back to Amphipolis -- Lyceus is looking after the Inn -- and Xena finds that she's engaged, and has been for the last 11 years. She keeps putting the wedding off. Then Xena learns that her mother is dead; she died of a broken heart because Amphipolis was taken and she lost her spirit.
Xena: "Mother, I never meant for this to happen. I just wanted that boy's life back. Now, I have another chance at life too, so I'm gonna take it. The hardest thing is losing you and Gabrielle. It makes it easier knowing that in this life I never shamed you...and Gabrielle never left her family...and I never led Lyceus to die in battle. And, I know that's what you would have wanted. It's like Xena, Warrior Princess, never existed. But, the world's a better place without her."
Several slave leaders go into Amphipolis to "obtain" goods, and Xena sees one of them attack a merchant; she pulls the rug out from under him (literally). This fellow looks a lot like Draco. But his slave is ... Gabrielle. He goes to strike Gabrielle and Xena stops him; then her fiance' steps in and stops Xena, telling her she has to play by the rules. Xena and Lyceus do not like the rules.
Xena sneaks into the place where Gabrielle is being held and gets her out, even though Gabrielle has no idea who this woman is. Xena takes Gabrielle back to her "home" and gives her some of her mother's clothing; Lyceus and Gabrielle exchange some looks and signals that make Xena smile.
But Xena's fiance' sells them out, telling them all they want is the slave girl back. They come to get Gabrielle, but Lyceus draws his sword, and then Xena, Lyceus and Gabrielle are captured. The fiance' is conked on the head.
Lyceus is mad at Xena, for she won't pick up a sword. She can't (or won't) tell Lyceus why she doesn't fight with a sword, and he's not a happy camper. The warlords have put the three in separate cages, and hung them above a pit. Lyceus tells Xena he'd rather be dead than living under the rule of a warlord.
Xena: "If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened."
Gabrielle: "You're right. If it wasn't for you, I would never have known how it felt to be free again. I don't know whether to thank you...or to hate you."
Xena: "Hate me?"
Gabrielle: "At least before, I had forgotten what a real life was. You showed me all that. You gave me hope. You made me think that maybe it wasn't too late for me. Now..."
Xena: "I'm sorry."
Gabrielle: "I remind you of your friend."
Xena: "No, you are my friend."
The guard comes in, followed by another bad-looking guy, but he turns out to be Xena's fiance', who's realized he's screwed up. Lyceus goes to get the warlords; Xena follows. A fight ensues. Lots of good fighting, but Xena won't pick up a sword. And then Gabrielle picks up a sword, and she kills Mezentius. And Xena sees. And Xena says, "goodbye again, Lyceus" and stabs the man attacking her.
Quick cut back to real world; Gabrielle shouts to Xena that someone's behind her. This time, Xena doesn't just stick a sword in the person; she throws him down, gives him a second chance.
Gabrielle: "You don't seem yourself."
Xena: "No, you're wrong. I'm more myself than ever."
