The History of
Xena: Warrior Princess

The Early History of Xena

Xena's family came from Amphipolis, a village on the border of Thrace and Macedonia. Her parents were Atrius and Cyrene. Atrius left the family when Xena was quite young, but she knew him long enough to remember the way he would ride across a field on his warhorse and sweep her up into his arms. After Atrius left Amphipolis Cyrene supported the family by operating a tavern. Besides Xena Cyrene also raised two sons, Toris (the eldest child) and Lyceus (the youngest child).

Sometime while Xena was still a child, perhaps when she was no older than six or seven, Atrius came home from the Temple of Ares in a drunken rage. He told Cyrene that he had to kill Xena. Cyrene later confessed to Xena that she had killed Atrius in order to prevent him from killing Xena. It was to be many years before Xena learned what became of her father.

When Xena was still a teenager Amphipolis was attacked by a warlord named Cortese. The distinctive feature about Cortese' men was that they wore metal masks. Toris tried to persuade the people of Amphipolis to run to the hills and hide, but Xena and Lyceus persuaded at least some of them to stay and fight. Although Lyceus was killed Xena drove off Cortese' army. She formed an army from among her village men and started conquering villages around Amphipolis in an effort to create a buffer zone against further attacks by Cortese and other warlords.

Soon after she formed her army Xena became engaged to Petracles, a young warlord who was either her partner or lieutenant, but Xena realized that Petracles was only interested in conquering her and once she'd agreed to marry him he lost interest in her. Xena left Petracles and perhaps soon after this experience Xena may have met Helen (the wife of Menelaus who ran off to Troy with Paris)

Perhaps a year after setting out on her conquests, Xena captured a young Roman noble named Julius Caesar. She held him for ransom and entered into a relationship with him while waiting for his people to purchase his freedom. At the same time, an escaped slave who spoke Gaelic stowed away on Xena's ship. This slave, M'Lila, befriended and taught Xena how to fight with pressure points.

After Caesar was freed he followed Xena's ship across the sea and captured it, taking Xena's army prisoner. The Romans sailed to a nearby shore and crucified Xena and the Amphipolitans. M'Lila, who had escaped detection, freed Xena and took her to Mount Nestos where Nicklio the Healer lived. Nicklio set Xena's bones and allowed her to recuperate, but before she was fully recovered Roman soldiers attacked the healer's cave, killing M'Lila. Xena killed the soldiers and swore to dedicate herself from that time onward to death.

Healed but crippled by the harm done to her legs, Xena wandered east and joined the band of a vicious warlord named Borias. They became lovers and Xena developed a reputation as a ruthless butcher. When Borias attempted to engage in political maneuverings with Ming Tzu, the Emperor of Ch'in, and Lao Ma (wife of Lao-Tzu but effective ruler of the Kingdom of Lao), Xena interfered, kidnapping Ming Tien, young son and heir of Ming Tzu.

Borias helped Ming Tzu capture Xena after Ming Tien was ransomed, and Ming Tzu set his men upon her in a hunt. Lao Ma found Xena in the woods and took her into her own home. There she gradually taught Xena a new philosophy, hoping to arrange an alliance with Ming Tzu whereby Borias and Xena would keep the peace. But Xena, though having her legs healed by Lao Ma, was too full of hate to agree to Lao Ma's plans, and she killed Ming Tzu. Lao Ma apparently drove Xena and Borias out of the Kingdom of Lao.

Heading west from Ch'in, Xena and Borias plotted to use the Amazons as allies in a war against the Centaurs. If the Centaurs were destroyed, all of Greece would stand open for conquest. But they met Alti, a shamaness cast out by the central Asian Amazons. Alti had a young apprentice, Anokin, who won Xena's affection in the month they knew each other. But Anokine was then killed when Borias' army destroys a village on the border of Amazon territory.

Borias saved a young girl, Otere, from Xena's sword. Alti took Xena into the spirit realm to visit Anokin, who told Xena she despised her. Hurt by Anokin's rejection but fascinated by Alti's power, Xena learned all she could from Alti despite Borias' dislike of the shamaness. When Borias concluded an alliance with Cyane, queen of the Amazons of Central Asia, Xena schemed with Alti to destroy them.

Unaware she was but a pawn in Alti's plan to develop a great power, Xena lowered her guard and the shamaness cursed her unborn child, foretelling he would know neither his mother nor his father. When Xena had won Cyane's trust, she followed the queen to a special funeral rite for a young Amazon Xena had killed. She surprised Cyane and the other Amazon leaders and killed them all. Bereft of their leaders, the Central Asian Amazons were soon defeated by an army Alti had raised. But she used her powers to trap them in the spirit world so they could not cross over to eternity. Otere, the young girl saved by Borias, stayed behind when the army moved on, and she was raised by a remnant of the Amazons who survived the slaughter.

Xena now became the Destroyer of Nations, slaughtering towns for the sake of sating her deep anger, and perhaps to hide her own grief and horror at what happened to the men of Amphipolis. Xena raised a new army and learned of the Ixion Stone. The stone carried the evil essence of the race of centaurs and would bestow great power on whomever used it to transform himself into an image of the father of the centaurs. Perhaps thinking it would give her the power to destroy the world, Xena tried to take the Stone from a group of centaurs led by Kaleipus.

However, Xena had by this time borne a child to Borias, who was now her chief lieutenant and confidante. But he turned against Xena, probably when he realized the depth of her evil. Borias was murdered by Dagnine, one of Xena's lieutenants, and she was so shaken by the death of her lover that Xena gave her only child, Solan, to Kaleipus and withdrew her army.

Among her subsequent adventures Xena fought in some pretty nasty battles. She was befriended by Goliath in Palestine, where Goliath saved her life while his family was slaughtered by a bandit-chieftain or warlord named Gareth (the largest of all giants). Xena was badly wounded in the slaughter and taken in by some local people who tended her wounds. These may have been the people she helped in the episode "The Royal Couple of Thieves", who apparently were Israelites (she and Autolycus recovered the Ark of the Covenant for them).

Xena travelled north and eventually reached the lands of the Norse gods. She found Odin hanging from a tree because he had lost his zest for life. Xena's dark nature tantalized Odin and her made her a Valkyrie, a woman warrior elevated above other mortals to be a chooser of the slain. The Valkyries escorted dead warriors to the hall of Valhalla. Xena competed for Odin's favor with Grinhilda, leader of the Valkyries. But whereas Grinhilda loved Odin Xena only wanted to learn the secret of the Rheingold, which she had learned about from the Viking peoples. Only a person who had forsaken love could safely touch the Rheingold. Anyone else would be turned into a monster. The Rheingold was guarded by the Rhein maidens.

Xena eventually learned the secret of the Rheingold from Odin, and despite Grinhilda's best effort to stop her Xena found the Rheinmaidens and seduced one into revealing the secret location of the Rheingold to her. Xena took the gold and made a ring from it. The ring would make Xena invincible, but Grinhilda strove to take the ring. Finding Xena as she was about to put on the ring, Grinhilda took it away from Xena. At first victorious over Xena, Grinhilda began to turn into a monster. Xena cut the ring from Grinhilda's hand and used its power to trap Grinhilda in a cave, but Grinhilda recovered the ring and Xena had to leave the northlands as she had arrived: mortal and alone.

Sometime later Xena ventured into Gaul. There she met the Celtic princess Boadicea, who had her own army. Xena recruited Boadicea as an ally but then took her army away, turning Boadicea out. Not to be humiliated, Boadicea married Prasutagas, a king from Britain, and he brought an army to Gaul to challenge Xena. Xena defeated them both and apparently moved on.

Xena eventually returned to Greece. It may have been at this time that she started attacking and destroying towns like Cirrah. Darphus was apparently responsible for the fire and slaughter which led to inspiring Callisto to form her own army and seek revenge against Xena.

It may also be around this time when Xena tried to take Corinth, which was defended at least in part by centaurs under Tyldus. Xena lost half her army and the centaurs fought her to a standstill. Either before or after this battle Xena became embroiled in a war with Bacchus and his followers. Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, befriended Xena, and it may be that Xena for some reason agreed to help Orpheus against the Bacchi. But when Xena's army fought the Bacchi in a battle that lasted several days, Eurydice came between the two armies on the last day and was killed. Orpheus blamed Xena for Eurydice's death afterward, and though Bacchus was defeated on this occasion Xena had lost most of her army.

Xena's greatest battle was the Battle of Torentz, in which her army slaughtered 10,000 men. Somewhere later on in her adventures Xena established a fortress named Elysia. Xena seems to have been constantly recruiting new warriors (in "The Warrior Princess" we first saw her when she was giving a training session). At some other time Xena's army burned down Callisto's village of Cirra, killing nearly all of its inhabitants.

This battle may actually have been the battle of Corinth, the most famous battle in Xena's career. The pronunciation of the name is not entirely clear when Ares describes the battle to Strife in "Judgement Day" (see the Hercules episodes).

One of the worst encounters of Xena's career happened when her army was marching west. The vanguard entered a ravine and was trapped there by the Horde. Xena's main body of troops spent the better part of a day trying to get to their comrades, whose cries they could hear above the din of battle. When Xena finally reached the place where her men had made a stand against the savage, axe-wielding barbarians, all that remained of the soldiers in her vanguard were bloody and ragged bones.

So far, no other information about Xena's past has been revealed in the two series.