Tsukino Usagi - Astrology and Mythology
| Usagi and Her Sunsign Usagi is a Cancer (Cancer - the Crab - fourth sign of the zodiac), and fits the description of the stereotypical Cancer perfectly: she's emotional, loving, romantic, giving, clingy, given to tears, sensitive, and interested in food. ^_^ Cancer is a water sign and its ruling planet is the Moon - wow, surprise surprise, Usagi, a Cancer, is Sailor MOON. Who were the ad whizzers that came up with that one (Takeuchi Naoko xp)? ^^ Usagi's favorite precious stone, the pearl, is the stone associated with Cancer and the Moon. Cancer and the Moon are also associated with silver, which ties in with Usagi's possession of the ginzuishou (silver crystal). It might also interest you to note that the Japanese (along with the Koreans and Chinese) use a specific symbol to represent each day of the week, and the symbol used to represent Monday is the kanji for "tsuki" ("moon"), the first character in Usagi's name. I mention this because the twelve zodiac signs all have a day they're associated with, and the sign of Cancer is associated with Monday (the name "Monday" in fact derives from "Moon Day"). Usagi's Mythology Selene ("selene" is Greek for "moon") was the Greeks' first goddess of the moon and she is the daughter of two of the first twelve Titan gods: Hyperion and Thea. Just as her brother Helios (Greek for "sun") rides the chariot of the sun across the sky during the day and just as her sister Eos (Greek for "dawn") brings the dawn to herald the coming of Helios every morning, Selene rides the chariot of the moon across the sky at night. It's no coincidence that Takeuchi named Usagi Princess Selenity/Serenity in her past life on the Moon Kingdom. Along with Helios and Eos, Selene is really a "concept deity" or an "abstract deity" in that she is really just a personification of the Moon itself, like in books or poems where things like fear and anger are turned into actual people (e.g. "Death knocked on my door and said he had an appointment in Samarrah"). Selene was later subsumed by Artemis, the more well-known Greek goddess of the moon, who had an actual personality instead of just being a representation of the moon. Incidentally, the Roman version of Selene is Luna (the Latin word for "moon") and the Roman version of Artemis is Diana... so there you have it, the names for the three Moon Kingdom cats (Luna, Artemis, and Diana) and for Princess Serenity came from the goddesses of the moon, which is quite fitting for rather obvious reasons. :p The moon has three aspects represented by three different moon goddesses - Selene is considered the heavenly aspect, Artemis is considered the "earthly" aspect who went among people, and Hecate (an underworld goddess of the moon and witchcraft) is considered the "underworld" or "dark" aspect of the moon. Here I only discuss Selene since she is the only one of the three goddesses connected to Usagi. Selene only has one myth connected to her (the other two moon goddesses have much more), but it's important to Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon in that the myth is about Selene and Endymion... sound familiar? ^.^ According to the story, Selene was guiding her moon-chariot across the night sky when she looked down at the earth and saw a beautiful shepherd sleeping peacefully by his flocks (his name was Endymion). She fell in love with him immediately, and began to "visit" him in his dreams every night as he slept. o_o Selene was smart though, and knowing that Endymion was a mortal man, she asked Zeus to grant Endymion eternal life, eternal youth, and eternal sleep (O_O;;;) so that Selene could "visit" -_- him every night in his dreams. The wish was granted, and the myth says that Selene continues to see Endymion every night... and that Endymion sleeps with a perpetual smile on his face. *har har* XD Obviously, the connection of this myth to Moon Princess Serenity and Earth Prince Endymion is quite clear. Oh yeah, Selene had FIFTY daughters as a consequence of her nightly "visits" with the sleeping Endymion... he must be able to perform well even in his sleep! What if Mamoru was like that, can you imagine it? FIFTY Chibi-Usa's? o_o *dies* Mythology Behind the Constellation Cancer Heracles was carrying out the second of his twelve famous labors; this second labor was to kill the poisonous Hydra of Lernea. The Lernean Hydra was a serpent with nine heads (eight were mortal, and one was not), and when Heracles cut off one of the heads and left the stump, two more would grow out of the stump to replace it. Naturally Heracles could not defeat the monster by normal means, so he retreated and the next time he fought the Hydra he had his nephew and assistant Iolaus (some say Iolaus was also Heracles' lover :D) cauterize the stumps with a burning torch as Heracles cut the heads off. After all the heads had been cut off and the stumps all cauterized, Heracles buried the one immortal head and dipped his arrows in the poison of the Hydra. These poisoned arrows played a crucial role in many later myths, but at any rate, I'm digressing, so getting back on track: Hera, queen of the gods, is famous for having a HUGE grudge against Heracles since Heracles was the result of Hera's husband Zeus sleeping with the princess Alcmene, and so to try and prevent Heracles from succeeding in defeating the Hydra, Hera sent a giant crab after him... but Heracles merely crushed the crabby underfoot. o_o Even though the crab failed, Hera honored its sacrifice by placing it in the sky as the constellation Cancer - the Crab. |