Myth Into History, History Into Myth, Week 1: Reintroductions [Danger Shop, Thursday 1st Period]
When students arrived in the Danger Shop, they would find it set up to look like the interior of an old canvas tent -- not a pup tent, but the kind you would find at the base camp of an archaeological dig site from the late 1930s or early 1940s. Piles of crates lined the walls at varying degrees of dubious balance, and inexplicably a large Gatling gun (sans ammunition) stood on a tripod opposite the door. Next to the Gatling, behind a desk cluttered with artifacts and notes, sat Janice with her booted feet up on the desk, her fedora down over her eyes, and an unlit cigar clenched in her teeth.
"There you are," she said finally, once everyone was seated in the half circle of camp chairs at the center of the tent. "First things first. My name is Doctor Janice Covington, and the first person to call me Doc gets detention faster than I can crack a whip -- which, let me tell you, is pretty damned fast. I'm an archaeologist, in case you can't tell, and I'm here to teach you something about the myths and history of the ancient world. We'll be focusing mainly on Greece and Rome in this class, but some of the material will cover events in Gaul, the British Isles, Egypt, and even China. Come up at the end of class and pick up a packet with all the reading material you'll need for the semester. If you don't, you have no excuse."
She stood up and paced slowly around the tent, sizing up her students; God only knew how she managed to keep that cigar in her teeth and still speak fairly clearly around it. "Whatever you think you know about the ancient world? You're probably wrong. For centuries scholars have been missing a huge part of the puzzle. But thanks to my father's research, my partner Melinda Pappas and I have made a huge discovery that changes everything. Everything," she repeated, her toothy grin hinting at perhaps a slightly unbalanced psyche. She picked up a fragment of well-worn parchment and held it in both hands, almost reverently.
"This was the first piece my father found. The key to finding the last piece of the puzzle: the most important archaeological find of the century. Something that will revolutionize the way we look at the ancient world. It has the power to turn myth into history -- history into myth." The dramatic pause was, perhaps, a touch overdramatic. "This was the first fragment of the Xena Scrolls to be unearthed, and it tells the story of Xena's first encounter with her nemesis, the crazed warlord Callisto."
Janice handed the bit of parchment to the nearest student, along with a translation in Mel Pappas's impeccable hand. "It's only a virtual replica, but treat it with respect," she ordered.
Once the parchment had made its rounds, Janice tucked her thumbs into her belt and surveyed the class again before speaking. "So. We'll keep it pretty basic today. Who you are, when and where you're from, why you're in this class, and a brief rundown of what exactly you know so far about the myths and stories of this time period. After that, we've got a little activity to do."
Syllabus, Roster, and Class Info
[OOC: OCD is up. Have at!]
"There you are," she said finally, once everyone was seated in the half circle of camp chairs at the center of the tent. "First things first. My name is Doctor Janice Covington, and the first person to call me Doc gets detention faster than I can crack a whip -- which, let me tell you, is pretty damned fast. I'm an archaeologist, in case you can't tell, and I'm here to teach you something about the myths and history of the ancient world. We'll be focusing mainly on Greece and Rome in this class, but some of the material will cover events in Gaul, the British Isles, Egypt, and even China. Come up at the end of class and pick up a packet with all the reading material you'll need for the semester. If you don't, you have no excuse."
She stood up and paced slowly around the tent, sizing up her students; God only knew how she managed to keep that cigar in her teeth and still speak fairly clearly around it. "Whatever you think you know about the ancient world? You're probably wrong. For centuries scholars have been missing a huge part of the puzzle. But thanks to my father's research, my partner Melinda Pappas and I have made a huge discovery that changes everything. Everything," she repeated, her toothy grin hinting at perhaps a slightly unbalanced psyche. She picked up a fragment of well-worn parchment and held it in both hands, almost reverently.
"This was the first piece my father found. The key to finding the last piece of the puzzle: the most important archaeological find of the century. Something that will revolutionize the way we look at the ancient world. It has the power to turn myth into history -- history into myth." The dramatic pause was, perhaps, a touch overdramatic. "This was the first fragment of the Xena Scrolls to be unearthed, and it tells the story of Xena's first encounter with her nemesis, the crazed warlord Callisto."
Janice handed the bit of parchment to the nearest student, along with a translation in Mel Pappas's impeccable hand. "It's only a virtual replica, but treat it with respect," she ordered.
Once the parchment had made its rounds, Janice tucked her thumbs into her belt and surveyed the class again before speaking. "So. We'll keep it pretty basic today. Who you are, when and where you're from, why you're in this class, and a brief rundown of what exactly you know so far about the myths and stories of this time period. After that, we've got a little activity to do."
Syllabus, Roster, and Class Info
[OOC: OCD is up. Have at!]