Tomoe Hotaru - Astrology and Mythology
| Hotaru and Her Sunsign
First off, you probably know that the Inner and Outer Senshi are named after the ruling planet of their zodiac sign; for example, Makoto is a Sagittarius, Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Makoto is Sailor Jupiter. What you need to know then is that the sign of Scorpio is ruled by the planet Pluto while Capricorn is ruled by Saturn. With that said, Hotaru (Sailor Saturn) is a Capricorn, not a Scorpio, but her powers of revolution, death, and rebirth are all VERY much traits characteristic of Scorpio and Pluto; even her change from a twelve-year-old to a baby in Sailormoon Super and then her rapid changes of age in SailorStars are perfect examples of Scorpio/Pluto qualities of rebirth, regeneration, and massive change. Hotaru is not at all like the Capricorn she is supposed to be. As for Setsuna, her powers related to time and her role as the Guardian of Time is a Capricorn thing, not a Scorpio thing, since the zodiac sign of Capricorn is ruled by Cronus, Greek god of time (Saturn is Cronus's Roman name). Also, Capricorn is associated with solitude and solitary living, and while Hotaru certainly has had her share of friendless and solitary living, Setsuna's lonely life guarding the Time Gate for centuries on end is more Capricorn than Hotaru's life is. In other words, when Sailor Pluto/Setsuna first appeared at the Time Gate in Sailormoon Romance, she should have been called Sailor Saturn instead and she should have had Capricorn as her zodiac sign; and when Saturn/Hotaru appeared as the Senshi of death and destruction and rebirth in Sailormoon Super, she really should have been called Sailor Pluto, with the zodiac sign of Scorpio. Hotaru does fit the Capricorn persona in that she is intense, serious, and quiet (but then again these qualities also fit Scorpios quite well), and as said above, Capricorn's ruling planet is Saturn, hence Hotaru's Senshi name. Capricorns are also prone to childhood ailments, which ties in with Hotaru's frailty. 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 Saturday is also the first kanji/character in Hotaru's name. I mention this because the twelve zodiac signs all have a day they're associated with, and the sign of Capricorn is associated with Saturday (the name "Saturday" in fact derives from "Saturn's Day"). Hotaru's Mythology In Greek mythology, Cronus, youngest of the twelve Titans born to Gaea and Ouranos (Earth and Sky), castrated his father Ouranos with a big scythe (ouch O_O), driving him far away from Gaea. Since that time heaven and earth (Ouranos and Gaea) have been far apart from each other, though they were once locked in embrace. Cronus threw his father's dismembered genitals into the sea, where they turned into sea-foam; Aphrodite, goddess of love, was born from that foam. When Ouranos fled Gaea, he prophesied that Cronus would be deposed by one of his sons just as he had deposed Ouranos. Cronus, married to his sister Rhea, prevented any chance of that happening by swallowing each of Rhea's five children (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon) as she gave birth to them. Naturally, Rhea was a bit annoyed by this, so when she got pregnant a sixth time, she fled and gave birth to her youngest child Zeus in seclusion. She tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes by saying it was their sixth child, and gave up Zeus to be raised in secret by a nymph named Adrastea and a she-goat named Amalthea. When Zeus grew into his manhood (so to speak, eh he he... ^^), Rhea brought him to Cronus to be Cronus's cupbearer, and Cronus was so impressed by the youth's beauty and strength that he agreed. Zeus tricked Cronus into drinking a mixture that made him vomit up first the stone, and then the five swallowed gods, who were now full-grown. Zeus and his new band of gods fought against Cronus and the Titans (some Titans, like Rhea, stayed out of the fight); and when Cronus and the Titans lost (thus fulfilling Ouranos's prophecy), some myths say that Zeus allowed Cronus to rule the Titans at another mountain just as he ruled his gods on Mount Olympus, while other myths say that Cronus was allowed to rule over the Elysian Fields - that heavenly, paradisical part of the Underworld where only the shades of dead heroes and noble people reside. Hotaru's connection to Cronus (Saturn) is more clear than her connection to Capricorn. Like Cronus, Sailor Saturn wields a big scythe-like object, and although I said that the death/destruction/rebirth theme behind Sailor Saturn is very much a Scorpio/Pluto thing, the way Cronus deposed his father and was in turn deposed by his son does kind of represent the cycle of destruction and beginning anew, of death and rebirth. You know, kind of like that quote: "The king is dead; long live the king." Cronus/Saturn is a god of the harvest, after all, and the harvest cycle is one of death and rebirth each year. ^^ Additionally, the fact that Cronus/Saturn is son to Ouranos/Uranus neatly ties in with the fact that Hotaru (Sailor Saturn) calls Haruka (Sailor Uranus) her "Haruka-papa." :p *L* Mythology Behind the Constellation Capricorn As mentioned in the previous section, the god Zeus was raised by a nymph and a she-goat named Amalthea; this she-goat nursed baby Zeus and watched over him vigilantly. One day, Zeus, still a baby but possessed of a god's strength, accidentally broke off one of Amalthea's horns while he was playing. The horn began to give forth all sorts of fruits and other foods and drinks, and no matter how much you took out of it, the horn would give more (this is where the term "cornucopia" or "horn of plenty" comes from). Amalthea died peacefully long after Zeus overthrew the Titans and earned his throne on Olympus, and the grateful Zeus placed Amalthea and the cornucopia in the sky as the constellation Capricorn - the Goat's Horn - in honor of Amalthea's dedication to the king of the gods. Amalthea's hide was used as a covering for Zeus's breastplate and the head of the Gorgon Medusa was mounted on it; this fearsome combination was known as the aegis. Athene, goddess of wisdom/invention and most beloved daughter of Zeus, later used the aegis as her trademark shield.
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Hotaru is a Capricorn (Capricorn - the Goat's Horn - tenth sign of the zodiac). To tell you the truth, Takeuchi Naoko confuses me here because Setsuna (Sailor Pluto) and Hotaru got the wrong zodiac signs; let me try to explain that.