Acheron and Python

[finarvyn]

Rereading Hour of the Dragon and noticed references to Acheron and Python. I suppose I could hit google, but I was curious as to how much was detailed about those ancient lands in the actual Howard stories.

[deuce]

Dec 24, 2016 21:28:54 GMT -5 finarvyn said:

Rereading Hour of the Dragon and noticed references to Acheron and Python. I suppose I could hit google, but I was curious as to how much was detailed about those ancient lands in the actual Howard stories.

I had a very long thread on Acheron over at the old forum. Python isn't an ancient land. It was the capital of Acheron. In his synopsis for HotD, Howard stated that the Acheronians were Hyborians. You can check it out yourself in The Bloody Crown of Conan.  De Camp willfully changed that in the Lancer and Ace editions, making the Acheronians into Stygians and Kuthchemes an "Acheronian" city, despite REH plainly stating it was Stygian.

Essentially, the Acheronians were the sorcerous Roman Empire of the Hyborian Age. It arose and conquered the civilized Hyborian kingdoms of (Elder) Koth, (Elder) Corinthia and (Elder) Ophir. The barbaric Hyborian tribes (ancestors to the Argosseans, Aquilonians, Nemedians and others) rose up and overthrew Acheron. Mitra worship seems to have started at that point. The barbarians settled down and became the civilized kingdoms of Conan's era.

[lordyam]

I think it was stated that Python was in Nemedia somewhere. I always imagined that Xal visited the city ruins with Orastes

I know it's pastiche but Roy Thomas had a story where it's mentioned the Mitra worshippers had to pray in the catacombs to avoid persecution. I....could buy that actually.

[buxom9sorceress]

Thanks for all the info in here, guys.

[ i used to get a bit mixed up about acheron and python.
i think 1 of the pastichers accidentally confused me? ]
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[ i am just digging up a sorceress-thing from ancient acheron: i need to talk to her shade... ]

[deuce]

The extent of Acheron and the kingdoms tributary to it as given in the final, published draft of The Hour of the Dragon:


“The barbarians who overthrew Acheron set up new kingdoms,” quoth Orastes. “Where the empire had stretched now rose realms called Aquilonia, and Nemedia, and Argos, from the tribes that founded them. The older kingdoms of Ophir, Corinthia and western Koth, which had been subject to the kings of Acheron, regained their independence with the fall of the empire.”


Here is a slightly different version from REH's synopsis drawn up before the first draft:


Many centuries before, the people of Acheron, Hyborians more highly civilized than their neighbors to the east and the west, had been lords of an empire which included what was later southern Nemedia and Brythunia, most of Corinthia, most of Ophir, western Koth and the western lands of Shem, northern Argos, and eastern Aquilonia.



IMO, some of the "changes" in the final draft are just REH/Orastes glossing things over. For instance, it's pretty clear from other passages in the final draft that Acheron didn't control all of Aquilonia and the Empire probably stopped somewhere on one side or the other of the Shirki River.  On the other hand, it's possible that Howard did change his mind regarding western Shem and Brythunia. 

[deuce]

Mar 15, 2017 20:02:42 GMT -5 deuce said:

The extent of Acheron and the kingdoms tributary to it as given in the final, published draft of The Hour of the Dragon:


“The barbarians who overthrew Acheron set up new kingdoms,” quoth Orastes. “Where the empire had stretched now rose realms called Aquilonia, and Nemedia, and Argos, from the tribes that founded them. The older kingdoms of Ophir, Corinthia and western Koth, which had been subject to the kings of Acheron, regained their independence with the fall of the empire.”


Here is a slightly different version from REH's synopsis drawn up before the first draft:


Many centuries before, the people of Acheron, Hyborians more highly civilized than their neighbors to the east and the west, had been lords of an empire which included what was later southern Nemedia and Brythunia, most of Corinthia, most of Ophir, western Koth and the western lands of Shem, northern Argos, and eastern Aquilonia.



IMO, some of the "changes" in the final draft are just REH/Orastes glossing things over. For instance, it's pretty clear from other passages in the final draft that Acheron didn't control all of Aquilonia and the Empire probably stopped somewhere on one side or the other of the Shirki River.  On the other hand, it's possible that Howard did change his mind regarding western Shem and Brythunia. 

This is from Chapter XVI of The Hour of the Dragon and gives a little more insight into where the boundaries between the Acheronian and Stygian dominions lay:


The Stygians were an ancient race, a dark, inscrutable people, powerful and merciless. Long ago their rule had stretched far north of the Styx, beyond the meadowlands of Shem, and into the fertile uplands now inhabited by the peoples of Koth and Ophir and Argos. Their borders had marched with those of ancient Acheron. But Acheron had fallen, and the barbaric ancestors of the Hyborians had swept southward in wolfskins and horned helmets, driving the ancient rulers of the land before them. The Stygians had not forgotten.