Sailorsaturn, the senshi of destruction is named after the Roman god Saturn. He was a god of fertility and planting, not a god of destruction and death but Sailorsaturn is also the senshi of rebirth and this may be one reason why she is named after this Roman god of agriculture. "serious and gloomy" - that is the meaning of the word Saturn and if you look at the way Hotaru behaves in the S-season, you cannot tell that she is a very cheerful kid (no wonder, if you know her fate) if she was different there would never have been any discussion about her being "goth" or not. In mythology the god Saturn was married to the goddess Ops. They had three sons, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. These gods represent three things that cannot be killed by time - air, water and death and Saturn was the god of time (why is Pluto guarding the Gate of Time and not Sailorsaturn?) and his weapon was a scythe (Sailorsaturn's glaive looks very much like a scythe, but a scythe is also said to be the weapon of the Grim Reaper who represents death, maybe that's why she is called the senshi of destruction). His sons didn't show much love for her father and Jupiter finally chased him away, the powerful god was now a fugitive but he was lucky for Janus helped him to find a place in Latium. Saturn showed his gratitude by introducing agriculture and viniculture there. This was the beginning of a happy and prosperous time, the so called "Golden Age". The Romans even invented a festival to honor Saturn, it lasted seven days in the midst of winter, there was a lot of eating and drinking, kids got toys from their parents, there was no public business and the schools were closed too (very similar to Christmas ...) at the "Saturnalia", that's what the festival was called. The festival was very popular (who would not love such a great time of merrymaking?) but Saturn himself was never very famous, even the identification with the Greek God Cronus (the god of time) from the third century on, made him not much more popular but his temple, which was situated below the Capitoline Hill was one of the oldest and it housed the Royal Treasury. HOME |