Philomena

Hatha Culm Archila (Chief Carpenter)

Tamboo Koritsi (Social Apprentice)

Sister to Bephanin

When Philomena was 16 years old, her father became very ill and died. As a result, her mother went crazy with grief; she began having violent mood swings and talking to herself----at times hysterical and catatonic at others. Philomena and her elder sister Bephanin were left to work the family farm, which was in a secluded field near Diospolis, and take care of their disturbed and insane mother. Neither had a chance to mourn their father.

Philomena began to hate her father for dying and vowed to herself to never become so dependent on a male or become as weak as her mother. With this state of mind, she forced herself to take on all of the chores that her father had done, leaving her sister free to take care of the house and their sickly mother.

Bephanin dealt with the loss in the exact opposite way. She became needy for attention and often cried, yearning for her father and mother to return though she never complained of the work.

Both girls felt the work starting to become easier, and a sense of normality was seeping back into their lives but not for long. One hot summer night their mother entered Bephanin's room with the largest meat-cutting knife they owned. Bephanin awakened just in time to move out of the way of the knife's point by rolling out of bed. Philomena, who heard her mother moving about the house, ran into the room unaware of the situation. Their mother instantly turned her rage on her younger daughter and with one downward stroke, left a painful but non-fatal flesh wound stretching from Philomena's left shoulder blade across her collarbone and between her breasts ending at the bottom of her breastbone. When their mother pulled her arm back to run her through, Philomena backhanded her across the face leaving her unconscious.

Before their mother could awaken, she rounded up her older sister, food supplies, some blankets and some clothes and ran. Bephanin wanted to return, but Philomena was at the end of her rope with her mother. Never being a good leader or rebel, Beph followed her younger sister wherever she was told to. Like this, they traveled for three years; wandering from town to town-------getting work where they could and roughing it when they couldn't. The life wasn't bad. They met many interesting people and saw a multitude of places that even Bephanin couldn't find a bad thing to say about.

In the summer of the third year, they were hired to help repair and build houses. Bephanin was up on a roof while Philomena was handing her boards and branches to fix a hole. The roof being weak and Bephanin being tired and not careful proved to be dangerous. She fell through a weak spot and broke her leg. Philomena instantly took on a very domestic life for about six months. She worked night and day to keep a room at the inn with three meals a piece. She had a healer take care of Beph who stopped coming after the first three weeks and began sending his son in his place. Bephanin was very chatty and loved talking to someone other than her workaholic sister. So on the days that he would come to check her leg, he stayed with her until Philomena came back to the room. The costs for his visits kept becoming less and less until he finally refused payments all together and doubled his visits. When the leg healed, they moved on.

They traveled for another six months, slowly moving to allow a complete recovery for the elder sister's leg. They began moving north because Bephanin wanted to see the ocean. While on their travels they met an interesting woman named Irina.

Philomena is five feet; three inches tall with shoulder length auburn hair that is rarely allowed to hang loose. She is light complexioned and has eyes of a silvery-blue, very bright like a full moon reflecting on a black lake in darkest hour of a summer night. She is stronger than average from taking a large load of work on the farm after her father died. She also has a white scar stretching from her right shoulder and over her collarbone and between her breasts ending just at the tip of her breastbone from when her mother tried to kill her. She also has a birthmark at the base of her neck.

She likes listening to stories, dancing, taking care of others, practicing with her weapons and sitting by a river or lake at night with her own thoughts, gazing at the stars and moon. Her sister, Bephanin is five foot, six inches with brown hair cut to shoulder length and never pulled back. She has the same eye color as Philomena and a light complexion though darker than her sister's with freckles on her face across the bridge of her nose. She is a peaceful and non-violent person who is fearful of drowning and the night.

Philomena uses the staff. She speaks Latin.

Tae'Nah athelfi arche: 04 Feb 2006

Xena Warrior Princess is  © Studios USA, Universal City Studios, Inc. Webset design and content ©2007 Crescent Designs for Themiscyra Amazon Nation. Many thanks to Mike's Xena Page for most of the captures.