I want to go back to this fascinating moment in season 6 of #Xena, at the end of “ The God You Know.” Eve & Dite are sharing a friendly moment despite Eve being the harbinger of the end of the many gods. Of course, Aphrodite is not actually a god at this point:

Caligula had drained her of her immortality. But Eve herself was never a champion against them, just the  object of their paranoia, & the catalyst for their self-inflicted downfall at #Xena’s hands. 

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Dite has a future despite the coming of the one god of Eli. I felt strongly about this, & set  this up this concept in my story, but is there any actual truth to this? Did the show’s powers-that-be feel the same way? After all, the original plan for the Twilight of the Gods storyline involved killing off Dite, with only Ares surviving. It makes sense, after all: with Eve & Eli’s God of Love arriving on the scene, having another love god(dess) around seems redundant. Thank goodness Rob & R.J. overruled this when they returned from managing their spinoffs to rectify this.

Why did they do this? As explained in You Are There, set right after Eve & Dite’s scene, we’re told it’s necessary to have both Dite & Ares  to achieve balance in the world. So the God of Love is therefore not sufficient to balance out Ares. Why not? Because I suspect the God of Love represents a different kind of love, a more selfless & non-transactional kind of love. Dite’s love is more incarnate, & in a way, she kind of balances out the selflessness that the God of Love inspires by adding a necessary amount of desire that physicality demands 

if the species is to function properly. This desire could range from pure carnal lust all the way to the energizing feeling of being in a crowd, & this can actually help supplement the spiritual love that Eli preached about. Without it, we might feel an intellectual compassion for each other, but feel irritated & even repulsed by other’s’ unnecessary proximity.

Is there anything in the show itself to indicate that this is how the writers saw it, though? I believe there is. In You Are There, we see a world without physical love, now that Dite is mortal.

People quickly lose their tempers with each other, & visit brothels to pay for what they can’t naturally feel. But the Elijians should be immune from this, since their god of love is doing just fine, right?

Wrong! 

Eve & her prayer circle are fully concentrating on their meditation, but clearly can’t hold onto their feelings of love. Eve quickly loses her temper with a journalist, & her followers grimly crowd around him. They haven’t forgotten Eli’s teachings, they just aren’t feeling it!

After Dite gets her powers back, however, it’s a different story. Eve’s prayer circle appear as friendly guests on his tabloid show, & offer a very physical & downright carnal peace offering. They’re a bit off-balance, in other words, as their commitment to Eli’s spiritual love is suddenly flooded with an unexpected rush of physical desire. 

I’m guessing they all felt a bit silly afterwards about their lack of self-control, but given how everyone else was knocked off-kilter without Dite’s moderating influence, the Elijians handled themselves pretty well, I think. I suspect the future of the Elijians involves a lot of negotiating between the powers of the GOL & Dite, with varying degrees of success.

They’re only human, after all.