Word: tenintius
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Based tenuously on the Atalanta and Hippomenes story, "A Hit and A Myth" is set in the "Ancient Greek city-state of Beotia," a debt-ridden parcel of backwater real estate ruled by that most amiable of tyrants, Tenintius (Stuart Beck). The King is trying to auction off his daughter, Atalanta (George Denny), to any one of a number of suitors, and right now the smart money's on a wealthy young Spartan, Hippomenes (Rich Hammond), who's so good looking that even the Vestals paw his tunic...
What is a father to do, muses Tenintius as he disconsolately fondles a slave girl, his heart heavy and his country destitute. Cloud-borne, the answer descends heavily from the grid. The goddess Diana (Anthony Fingleton) has landed in Beotia. As it turns out, the goddess of chastity, and the moon ("Would you like to see why?"), can't find any takers on Olympus. She's come to earth to correct all that. "People," she sings philosophically, "are better than nothing...
...minor personality adjustments so necessary to effect a union between the sportive Atalanta and her Lacedaemonian lad, and the ever-permissive Diana is perfectly prepared to sling a miracle or two in the aid of a good cause. The problem is the goddess's designs on King Tenintius himself. One glimpse at Fingleton's magnificent visual characterization of Diana--he looks precisely like one of the more grotesque 19th century caricatures of Britannia--and you understand the unfortunate monarch's dilemma...
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