Xena Warrior Princess

Xena: Warrior Princess  is set primarily in a fantasy version of  ancient Greece  (sometimes alluding to  Roman Greece ) and was filmed in New Zealand. Some filming locations are confidential, but many scenes were recorded in places such as the  Waitākere Ranges Regional Park , part of the  Auckland  Regional parks often credited at the end of the episodes. The Ancient Greece depicted in the show is largely derived from historical locations and customs, modifying known places and events – battles, trading routes, towns, and so on – to generate an attractive fictional world. The settlements are presented as a mixture of walled villages and rural hamlets set in a lush green, mountainous landscape. They are often seen under attack from warlords, and travelling between them involves frequent encounters with small bands of outlaws. All of the main towns are named after historic towns of Ancient Greece, and exhibit some of their essential characteristics –  Amphipolis  (birthplace of  Xena ),  Potidaea  (birthplace of  Gabrielle ),  Athens  (birthplace of  Joxer ),  Corinth ,  Delphi , and  Cirra  (birthplace of  Callisto ) which was burnt to the ground by Xena's army. As the show progressed, however, events took place throughout more modern times and places, from  Cleopatra 's  Alexandria  to  Julius Caesar 's  Rome . The mythology of the show transitioned from that of the  Olympian Gods  to include  Judeo-Christian  elements. Eastern religions were touched on as well, with little regard to accurate time-and-place concerns. One episode, "The Way", which loosely interpreted elements of  Hinduism  as major plot points, generated controversy, requiring the producers to add a disclaimer at the head of the episode and a tag explaining the episode's intentions at its end. Mythological and supernatural locations are presented as equally real, physical places, often accessed through physical portals hidden in the landscape such as lakes and caves. They include the  Elysian Fields ,  Tartarus , the  River Styx ,  Valhalla ,  Heaven  and  Hell . The inhabitants of such places – gods, mythological beings and forces – are for the most part manifested as human characters who can move at will between their domains and the real world.  Ares , the Greek God of War, for instance, is an egotistical man who wears studded black leather, and  Aphrodite , Goddess of Love, is a  California   Valley girl  who uses typical Valley girl slang and dresses in flowing, translucent pink gowns.