Chalice of the Sun God

This past weekend, I was at the Chalice Of The Sun God event, in the Barony of Ponte Alto. It was held at the Prince William Forest Park Camp 1, where I was ensconced in Cabin D2, if anyone cares.

This is a beautiful site, with two drawbacks:

• First, it's not pet-friendly. Sadie couldn't come.
• Second, you can't drive your car to the cabins, not even to unload. I was parked over 400 yards away, and had to walk over 2 miles just to get the car unloaded.

The theme of the event was "Persephone's Story", and the bardic and Arts&Science competitions were required to relate, however loosely, to this theme. I was a member of the "All-Stars" bardic competition team--the Bright Hills Performing Arts Guild, Extraordinaire (PAGE). Our presentation was an original short play, with music, based on the story of Orpheus.

Persephone, you recall, was "kidnapped" while out gathering flowers by the god of the Underworld, Hades, and taken to reign as his queen. (It's actually more complicated than that--Persephone was the ORIGINAL queen of the Underworld, and Hades got tacked on later in mythology, but we digress.) As Queen, she had a great deal of influence over Hades.

Then came Eurydice. She was the bride of Orpheus, greatest of all human bards, who died an untimely death at the fangs of a serpent. Orpheus, in despair, descended to the Underworld, charmed his way into the very throne room of Hades with his music, and begged for Eurydice to be returned to him.

Persephone's heart was softened by Orpheus' plea, and interceded on his behalf with Hades. The request was granted--but Orpheus could not speak to Eurydice, or look at her, until they both had left the Underworld completely behind. Having no other choice, Orpheus accepted the challenge, and began to sing a beautiful song, trying to entice Eurydice's shade to follow him up to the sunlight.

But once he reached the Overworld, in his hope, he turned too soon, and saw Eurydice before she left the gloom. She sighed his name in farewell, and was drawn back down to Hades halls.

Poor Orpheus. Poor Eurydice.

For our little production, I played Orpheus and wrote two songs: Orpheus' plea to Hades and Persephone, and Orpheus' song to entice Eurydice.

The performance went VERY well. Our first round took us through the plea of Orpheus, and won our position in the second round, where we were challenging the incumbent Chalice Champions. The second round included the restrictions Hades imposed, and the journey back to the lighted world (all in BLAZING sunlight and 100% humidity). We were in multilayered costumes--it's a wonder we didn't faint dead away.

AND WE WON.

Pictures (not mine, or you wouldn't see me in them) are at http://belfebe.smugmug.com/gallery/5969113_Xe2LT/1/372440324_NPXbq

I'm sweating and tuning my harp on Page 6; some photos of the second act are on Page 10.

We'll be back next year to defend our title!