{"id":478,"date":"2023-07-12T03:44:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T03:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/?p=478"},"modified":"2023-07-12T03:44:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T03:44:02","slug":"elijian-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/12\/elijian-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Elijian Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Eve, Ares and Aphrodite <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the concerns we might have about any Eve story is what sort of Messenger she is. If we regard her as basically a Christian with the serial numbers filed off, then does that make her an Eve-angelist? Does she travel to other countries looking to convert \u201cpagan\u201d souls to her faith? Is she a cultural imperialist, a zealot, preaching the one true message of the one true god? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we already have our answer to this in The God You Know, in the very last scene. Eve, Ares & Aphrodite are all sitting next to each other, with Eve smiling sympathetically as Dite complains about her newfound mortality. She\u2019s sitting right next to Ares, with whom she had some bad history, but doesn\u2019t seem to mind. He did bring her back to life, after all, in Motherhood. Later on, Eve has no problem when her mother restores their godhood to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t surprise me that Eve & Dite get along: they\u2019re in the same line of work, as I see it, just working different sides of it. They\u2019re spreading the word of love, & I believe Dite has a bright future, in her own way. Ares, as well, since he\u2019s highly adaptable & probably the most open minded of the Olympians, given his opportunism. We shouldn\u2019t be surprised. This is how it worked in real life. These Olympians continued on side-by-side with the Christian faith, & survived into the present as motivators of human interest in their respective sphere\u2019s of influence. Love & war did not end with the Christian Era, & certainly not with the Elijian era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what IS the Elijian Era? How does it work, according to the show? How is it different from the Olympian era?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line is: pretty much the same! If you go back & highlight everything Eli says about his faith, it\u2019s pretty much a description of what Xena & Gabrielle already believe. It\u2019s the ethos of the show, presented as a religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eli never talks about having rituals, or having to believe in a particular god (despite there actually being an entire heavenly hierarchy associated with this faith). There don\u2019t seem to be any jealous gods demanding fealty, or holy days, or anything like that. In fact, nothing to preclude one from leaving any other faith to join it. In Seeds of Faith, Eli does say that humanity doesn\u2019t need the gods. He teaches that each person is potentially a vessel of love that can find peace on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes him a threat to the jealous Olympians, but Krishna doesn\u2019t seem to have a problem with his teachings. Indeed, Eli was a student of the Temple of the Chakram, which presumably was set up by the elder gods, & we\u2019re told by Chris Manheim that he traveled to Egypt as well to study there, so there seems to be a connection of truth among all these faiths that he\u2019s tracing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the roots of Eli go deep in the show\u2019s creation, all the way back to its original concept as an adaptation of Conan the Barbarian. In those stories, there is a similar figure, Mitra, who is different from the others. He is a kind of humanist god, appearing as a gentle, bearded man, who empowers & elevates humanity, rather than try to reduce it to a groveling & bestial race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Eli\u2019s teachings come straight from Greek drama, I believe. #HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys was heavily influenced by Euripides\u2019 drama, Herakles, I believe. It\u2019s about Hercules\u2019 reputation being destroyed by Hera, & redeemed by the faith of his friend, Theseus, who stands by him when all others have turned way. This act of unconditional friendship is key to the show, & I believe key to #Xena as well. The very last ep is called A Friend in Need, after the Aesop fable about true friendship when it\u2019s most needed. In Looking Death in the Eye, Ares laments #Xena\u2019s \u201cdeath\u201d, envying Gabrielle\u2019s unconditional friendship, while acknowledging that his own is quite conditional, indeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doctrine of unconditional friendship is the true creed of Eli, & he demonstrates it when he saves his persecutor, Livia, & restores her to her true self, Eve. You might say there\u2019s a condition: Eve becomes his Messenger, continuing his ministry, but that\u2019s how she rolls. She never does anything by half measures. The theme of friendship is the message that I believe Eve takes up. As Eli says in Seeds of Faith, \u201cIf we are joined in peace & friendship, then we have no need of the gods.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the concerns we might have about any Eve story is what sort of Messenger she is. If we regard her as basically a Christian with the serial numbers filed off, then does that make her an Eve-angelist? Does she travel to other countries looking to convert \u201cpagan\u201d souls to her faith? Is she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-xena"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}