From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
                    THE XENA SCROLLS ARCHIVE   
      
   Xena Scroll Pouch #1   
      
   Dispatches from the Xena Restoration Society team that translated the Xena   
   Scrolls   
   (as edited by Robert Mellette)   
      
   Pouch 1: X.R.S. Correspondence   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: October 15, 1993   
   To: Costantakos   
   From: Janice Covington   
   Re: XENA'S ORIGIN   
      
   Professor Costantakos,   
      
   I must take issue with your conclusion that Xena was raised in Poteidaia.   
   Though the scroll you so aptly call "Sins of the Past" may never be fully   
   translated, it clearly states:   
      
   "...Her moment of inner surrender had come, so outside the city   
   of Poteidaia..."here the scroll is torn, but it continues 4.5   
   centimeters later on the same line, "..The once ignoble profiteer   
   buried her tools of destruction."   
      
   There is no hard evidence that Poteidaia is her home city. In your earlier   
   treatise, Xena: Lost Heroine of Greece, you have attributed the pronoun in   
   the lines: "...so she left Poteidaia, her home, to find her   
   adventures...""Sins of the Past" scroll later states, "...not yet the   
   heroine she will become, now just the mournful daughter of a mournful   
   mother, the Great Woman set off toward Amphipolis to return to a life that   
   was never to be" home.   
      
   This begs the question: who is the woman from Poteidaia? Obviously, she's   
   not Xena, since Xena had had enough adventure in her life. The Amphipolis   
   chapter of the scroll contains the snippet: "Poteidaians, known for their   
   gift of the gab, which she   
   certainly [upheld]...Xena at Amphipolis", but who she is and what she was   
   doing there, we may never know.   
      
   J. Covington   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: October 17, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Hasson   
   Re: Xena's Weapons   
      
   Dear Colleagues:   
      
   I am working on scroll number 805-01-76911 and am finding several references   
   to a "mighty staff", evidence of Xena using a staff in addition to her   
   Chakram and sword. I seem to recall references in 76901 (the so-called "Sins   
   of the Past" scroll), ago.   
      
   I would be most appreciative if one of you could help me out.   
      
   Dr. Araham Hasson   
   Glyfada School of Anthropology   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: October 18, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Costantakos   
   Re: RE: XENA'S WEAPONS   
      
   Most certainly Xena was familiar with how to use a staff. As we see in the   
   last portion of "Sins of the Past" which reads:   
      
   "So Draco of the Violet Crest made her [Xena] a challenge..."   
      
   Contemporaries that challenges then, like challenges for centuries to come,   
   meant the one challenged got to choose the weapon. True, much of this part   
   of the scroll is missing, but we   
   know that "Xena, her arms strong and sure, took her staff and vaulted over   
   Draco's army and the noble villagers to land on the scaffold."   
      
   So with all of the weapons she could have chosen in this fight for her home   
   village, Xena chooses a staff, which has always been a mystery to me. Your   
   discovery of a "mighty staff" may very well shed some light on this issue.   
      
   E. Costantakos   
   Oxford School of Antiquities   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: October 21, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Janice Covington   
   Re: RE: XENA'S WEAPONS   
      
   So with all of the weapons she could have chosen in this fight for her home   
   village, Xena chooses a staff, which has always been a mystery to me.   
      
   Evan,   
      
   Nice to see that you read my mail. I take it you now accept Amphipolis as   
   Xena's home? Unfortunately, you are as wrong about Xena's staff as you were   
   about her hometown. You have filled in partially legible words with   
   erroneous guesses. Most certainly Xena was familiar with how to use a staff.   
   As we see in the last portion of "Sins of the Past" which reads:   
      
   "So Draco of the Violet Crest made her [Xena] a challenge..."   
      
   Here you have inserted the words "made" and "a" where all I see is a tear in   
   the scroll. Could it not read, "Draco of the Violet Crest accepted her   
   challenge?" This would give Draco the choice of weapons; and, considering   
   his apparent love for her, he would certainly choose a less-than-lethal   
   weapon such as a staff.   
      
   Evan, Evan, Evan, if it weren't for the fact that you name these scrolls so   
   well (which I think is clever),   
      
   Janice.   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: November 20, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Costantakos   
   Re: DRACO   
      
   We are all, of course, familiar with the Draco that brought us "Draconian   
   Laws," brings up the question: Is this the same Draco mentioned in the Xena   
   Scrolls?   
      
   The very clear and beautifully translated (kudos to Dr. Hasson) Draco   
   segments of the "Sins of the Past" scroll, clearly show a Draco willing to   
   kill, even his closest advisors, over the   
   slightest offense. This would seem to support a "Single Draco Theory."   
      
   Unless, of course, Janice has some interpretation she's like to share with   
   us.   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: November 21, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Janice Covington   
      
   You know me, Evan. I've got an opinion about *everything*!   
      
   My only hesitation in accepting the Single Draco Theory is two fold. First,   
   we don't have a clear time line of events; and, more subtly, Xena's Draco   
   seems less cold-hearted than the Draco of "accepted" antiquity. The Scrolls   
   read, "Hector, his [ego] hurt more than his body, was not satisfied with the   
   simple trashing given to him by The Great Warlord. Knowing that he could not   
   kill him face-to-face, Hector charged Draco's back."   
      
   Is it Draconian to defend yourself?   
      
   And his second "victim" was also a case of defense:   
      
   "Defeated, humiliated, and humbled under the boots of the Warrior   
   Woman, Draco still kept his word--even to the point of defending   
   the Warrior Princess against his own men." " 'That which Draco   
   speaks, indeed [promises?], is as the act itself, and shall be   
   made as real as the [Earth??? (while the word isn't clear, it is   
   clearly NOT sky!)] which rests on Atlas' shoulders; even if my   
   sword, my blood, or the blood of my family or compatriots must be   
   spilled to make it so.' "   
      
   Which is classic Draconian philosophy--impartial, but harsh. So, I'm torn,   
   but am leaning toward a variation of the single Draco.   
   Perhaps this is an ancestor, or even a teacher of the Draco we've known and   
   feared for so many generations.   
      
   Janice   
      
   ******************Message Separator******************   
      
   Date: November 22, 1993   
   To: XRS   
   From: Costantakos   
      
   So, Janice, your opinion then is that you're not sure... ?   
      
   And what would Marvin's Idiom Translation people do with the "my blood"   
   speech?   
      
   Evan.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)