Above is a map of Ancient Greece and surrounding areas showing Potidea (Gabrielle’s hometown), Amphipolis (hometown of Xena), the island of Lesbos, Mt. Olympus, and the major city-states. Also shown is Dyrracheum (in present day Albania) and Farsala. “A Good Day” (Episode 4.5) dealt with the Battle of Dyrrhachium (Greek name Epidamnos), which took place on 10 July, 48 BCE. Pompey could have defeated Caesar but refused to believe the advantage he held when the right flank of Ceasar’s army collapsed. Caesar made an orderly retreat and resupplied. On 9 August of that year, he defeated Pompey soundly at Pharsalus.
In “To Helicon and Back” (Season 6 Episode 15), Bellerophon was portrayed as the son of Artemis, which he was not. In fact he was the son of Proteus, the King of Tiryns, a city about halfway between Athens and Sparta.
In Xena’s time, what is now Bulgaria, along with parts of northern Greece, was called Thrace, at least until Phillip II of Macedon made the whole area into Madedonia circa 350 BCE.
Ares finger points to Amazon Territory
In “Path of Vengeance” (episode 6.14), Area pointed to the area along the west coast of the Black Sea to indicate Amazon Territory. There is some justification for this. When Herodotus (484-425 BCE) described the Amazons he placed them in Samatia, and stated that they previously had lived in central Anatolia (Turkey).
The mythological Amazon Queen Penthesilea described in the Aithiopis intervened in the Trojan War circa 1200 BCE on the side of the Trojans, and that suggests she might have lived in Anatolia. According to Aeschylus (in The Eumenides) the Amazons lived in Themiscyra on the Thermodon (Terme) River, and before that they lived in Sythia at the Sea of Azov.
Distances from Athens
* as the crow flies
- Potidea ………….569 km
- Amphipolis ……..597 km
- Mt. Olympus ……..436 km
- Sparta …………..214 km
- Corinth ………….79.95 km
- Thebes ………….92.75 km
- Mytilene, Lesbos* ……277 km
- Alexandria, Egypt* …….937 km
- Rome ………………..1255 km
- Oslo, Norway ……….3363 km
- Punjab, India ……….7932 km
- Hong Kong ………….11764 km
- Tokyo, Japan ……….13201 km
- Mulhouse, France ……2456 km