Author's Notes

Remus and Romulus

Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, the King of Alba Longa. Numitor (Romulus and Remus' grandfather) had a younger brother, Amulius, who seized control over Alba Longa, and dethroned him. To avoid any conflict of power, Amulius killed any male heirs, and forced Rhea to be a virgin and take vows of chastity. An unknown God, although there are many variations of the story, apparently raped Rhea and she became pregnant with Romulus and Remus. Punishment for this betrayal was supposed to be death, but Amulius feared the paternal god (either Mars or Hercules). Because of this, Amulius decided to imprison Rhea, and have the boys sentenced to death by having a servant bury them alive. However, the servant took pity on the twins and instead placed the boys in a basket onto the river where they floated to safety. Their basket gets stuck near a fig tree, and this is when the she-wolf saves them. Lupa is the word for she-wolf, so that's where I came up with "Mama Lupa" as the wolf's name. At some point in the story, the boys are found and adopted by a shepherd and his wife. This is the stage of life that I have the boys in now in my story. They grow up to be shepherds, and when confronted by shepherds of King Amulius, Remus is captured and taken to the king. Romulus enlists other shepherds to help him try to save Remus. Amulius did not recognize the brothers, and in an attempt to rescue Remus, Romulus kills the king. He is offered the crown, but turns it down in hopes to find and start a new city with his brother. The brothers butt heads on where they want their city to be, and after not settling the debate, Romulus began building a wall around the hill where he wants his city. Remus makes fun of the wall, jumping back and forth over it, until Romulus gets fed up and kills him. Romulus then names his city Roma. Because the boys are still young, I only tried to convey their future by the personalities I gave them, and the dreams they had for the future. Since Romulus kills his brother, I wanted to give him that edgy personality that is often irritated by his annoying brother.

Image source (Romulus and Remus)

Pecos Bill

Story source: Pecos Bill

In an attempt to woo Slue-Foot Sue, Pecos Bill shot down all the stars in the sky, but one: the Lone Star. Slue-Foot Sue really wanted to ride Lightning, but Lightning was jealous that Slue-Foot Sue was taking all of Pecos Bill's attention. When Slue-Foot Sue was riding him, he bounced her off so hard that she continued to bounce and bounce. Different variations of the story say that either Pecos Bill tried to lasso her back down, but he failed and she hit her head on the moon; he lassos her back down, the horse apologizes, and all is well; or she finally recovers from bouncing, but is so traumatized that she never speaks to Pecos Bill again. Although Pecos Bill's character seems edgy, I wanted to give him some charm, ESPECIALLY when it came to talking about Sue. In the original story, it says that Pecos Bill "shot" down the stars, but I thought that having him say he is going to lasso them down was much more sweet. Like I said, I really wanted to give him that charm. The timeline was a little confusing in the different sources I used. It sounded like Pecos Bill and Slue-Foot Sue got married before his brother found him at the age of sixteen since he was fishing with "the pack." But there's no mention of Sue after his brother finds him either. I decided to keep them in the dating stage with his desire to marry her because it felt more appropriate. I also figured this would be a great time to allow Tarzan to interact more, since Pecos Bill has a more laid-back personality and can relate a little more.

Image source: (Sue, Pecos, and Lightning)

Atalanta

Story source: Atalanta

Being that Atalanta is a very skilled huntress, and has been successful in defeating the Calydonian Boar despite the backlash that she gets from men, I thought it would be fitting to attribute her with a feisty and independent personality. I also thought that having a female put Romulus in his place would offer a good balance and some humor to the story. In the original story, a hunter named Meleager was attracted to Atalanta. He persuaded the other hunters to allow her to hunt in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Meleager was a big part of Atalanta's success in defeating the boar, but I thought that adding him into the story wouldn't be much of a benefit for the reader. It would have added a lot more unnecessary narrative. When Atalanta begins living with her father, he does push her to marry. There was a certain suitor, named Hippomenes, desperately wanted Atalanta as his wife. He knew he couldn't beat her in a race, so he went to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, for help. Aphrodite provided him with three irresistible magic apples. During the race, Atalanta would stop to pick up the irresistable apples and eat them. This slowed her down, and Hippomenes ultimately won the race. Atalanta agreed to marry him. They were smitten with each other. When Aphrodite saw this, she was upset that Hippomenes forgot to honor her for the help. Because of this, it is said that Aphrodite had them turned into lions.

Image source: The Race