Mortal Beloved - Timing and Distance

Posted by AuntyEmfromOz@reddit | xena | View on Reddit | 12 comments

Timing:  3 nights and 3 days as per the episode: 

Night 1: Marcus the ghost appears
Next day: Xena goes to the Underworld
That night: They camp – Xena and Marcus ‘entwine’ while Gabrielle sleeps
Next day: they travel to the wedding festival and make a plan
That night: They thwart Atyminius
Next Day: Xena and Marcus return to the Underworld, then Xena re-surfaces in the lake to a waiting Gabrielle.

There is a full moon.  The last full moon I clocked was in Hooves and Harlots which was months ago, so let’s keep this full moon in mind when calculating future episodes’ timing.

Location:  According to Pausanius, a Greek traveller and geographer, there was a place called Alcyonian Lake, pronounced al-cee-OH-nee-an. It was a bottomless lake, in the vicinity, or perhaps even part of the swamps of Lerna in which Heracles fought the Hydra. The wine-god Dionysus used the Alcyonian Lake as a portal to Hades when he rescued his mother Semele from the Underworld. The heroine had died in a bolt of lightning when she asked Zeus to reveal to her his true nature as storm god. To retrieve her from the Underworld, Dionysus went to Lerna and dove into the fathomless lake. 
(https://www.mythweb.com/encyc/gallery/alcyonian_lake_c.html).

I also found  a reference in “Geography of Strabo Book XVII” first printed 1932 (https://s3.amazonaws.com/loebolus/L267.pdf) to an “Alcyonian Sea, in the Corinthian Gulf, extends from Pagae to the boundaries of Boeotia near Creusa” so the name was certainly around in ancient times.

There’s reference to a place called Pylos and there was a place by that name on the western side of Greece, but it is too far away from Lerna for the trio to get there. So considering Marcus was only given 48 hours of mortality, I haven’t included it in my calculations.  I am assuming the wedding was held close to the lake to fit in with that 48 hour timeframe.

Distances:  Therefore I’ve focussed only on the distance from Corinth, where it seemed Xena and Gabrielle were heading after being in King Lias’s and Diana’s kingdom last episode, to Lerna, a distance of 34.7 miles, almost 13 hours of walking so around 2 days at 7 hours a day.

Total this episode then of at 2 days travel and 3 days in the episode itself so 5 days.

Repeat performance

Things to Note

Highlight of the episode

Michael Hurst as Charon.  Even under all that makeup, he and Lucy Lawless have, in my opinion, more chemistry than she ever had with Hercules.