This drawing from the #Xena Virtual Season ep, The Laurel Tree, shows iirc a soldier with a gorytos, an ancient Greek quiver. (actually Scythian). It was specified in the script, but I came across a pic of an ornate one found in Philip of Macedonia’s tomb.

Generally, when I illustrated a teleplay, it was given me by the editorial staff. I didn’t really interact with the author. This was how they did it on the show as well. I would try to discover the author’s intent, while expanding on it using my own research. 

I would also try to look for any patterns in the story that could influence my choices. It didn’t matter whether those patterns were intentional: if they were there, for any reason, I’d use them. In this case, I did hear from the author, afterwards, who told me I picked exactly 

the right design for the gorytos. So I was very pleased. She was very nice, & would later write another ep in season 8 I was looking forward to illustrating, but wasn’t able to, as I had other commitments by then. Btw: you know this character is evil by the off-kilter angle!