Celesta is the Goddess of Death - Herald of Hades is Death personified. She guides the souls of dead mortals down to the Underworld to Hades.
If Celesta is captured or restrained no mortal can die and those marked for death will stay in the land of the living. Celesta carries a candle with an ever-burning flame. If the flame were to die, Celesta herself would cease to exist and there would be no death. She was captured by Sisyphus when he feared his own death. He planned to let her candle die so he could remain immortal but Celesta was rescued by Xena and Gabrielle. (XWP "Death in Chains")
Years later, Athena demanded that Celesta kill Eve. Celesta refused, as it was not Eve's time. Shortly thereafter, she was captured by Xena and her tears (which put mortals into a death-like sleep when consumed) were extracted in an elaborate plot to convince the Gods of her and Eve's death (XWP "Looking Death in the Eye")
Hercules first encountered Celesta when he accidentally killed Bartoc. Years later, Celesta came for Bartoc's younger brother Jaris and Hercules convinced her to give Jaris one day to sort out his business before death. During both their encounters, Celesta expressed an almost maternal fondess for Hercules and told him that she and many other Olympians were proud of him. (HTLJ "Regrets... I've Had a Few")
Powers and Abilities[]
Being the Olympian personified of Death, Celesta has the common Powers and Abilities of all Gods, and some unique to her as well.
- Immortality: Like most gods, Celesta has an inability to die, age, be wounded, or become sick. Unlike most gods, Celesta's immortality is governed by a candle that she holds with her at all times. Although the candle cannot be extinguished, if she is not holding it, then it will diminish slowly and she will die.
- Invisibility: To make oneself unseen by those around them. Most Olympian gods have this ability, which Celesta seems to share. Although it is not shown on screen, people will still die, even if Celesta does not visually appear. This may imply that she is invisible or has other means of inflicting death.
- Omnipresence: Celesta seems to have the ability to be many and all places at once. Though she must be present to allow a mortal's death to occur, she never seems to be in a hurry to get to once place or another. Likewise, mortals die, even when is presence is not known.
- Omniscience: A sense of all knowingness. Celesta has a form of this ability to know when and where a person will die, which directs her in going to where she is needed. This ability seems only related to death and she is not all knowing on other matters, although she does have a certain level of information about people who are about to die such as their names and details of their life. In Death in Chains, however, when Sisyphus captures her, she is surprised and says she "wasn't told" he was a sorcerer. Which implies that some of her information is given to her.
- Teleportation: To appear and disappear all around the world is an ability held by all gods. For Celesta, she well transport herself in a ripple of smoky light with a purple hue.
- Afterlife access: A special ability of travel held by Celesta is the ability to access the realms of the dead, and to take spirits of the departed there with her. This is done through the creation of portals that will open up from the mortal world into the afterlife.
- Touch of death: If Celesta touches any mortal being or if she is touched by a mortal, the mortal dies instantly, Celesta seems to have no control over her power. It does not seem that she always needs to physically touch a person to die but only needs to be present in one way or another. If she is ever bound, she will not be able to bring death to mortal beings.
- Weightlessness: The power to float and glide through the air, as if unbound by gravity. This is a unique trait held by Celesta compared to other gods that she does not walk around, but instead will hover through space like a ghost, adding to her ethereal nature. Once bound however, this ability seems to leave her and she sinks back down to the earth.
Mythology[]
- Celesta is original to the Xenaverse and in fact bears no resemblance to any character in Greek mythology. The personification of Death is a God named Thanatos of Nemea, a son of Nyx (Night) and Erebus (Darkness). Thanatos shared his duties as the guide of souls with his brother Hypnos (sleep) and with Hermes. Though Hecate possesses the ability to enter and exit the underworld as she pleases, she was never actually associated with death, being more properly a Goddess of Crossroads, Liminal Spaces, and ways between.
- Celesta may be inspired by Macaria is an underworld divinity associated with blessed death, daughter of HadesHades and sweeter counterpart of the God Thanatos. They reigned on the island of the blessed.
- Celesta constantly refers to Hades as her "brother", however, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, are established as brothers in Hercules, Young Hercules and Xena, It is not specified if Celesta is the sister of Hades to both parents or only to one side, also it is not specified if Hera, Demeter and Hestia are sisters of Zeus and daughters of Kronos . A similar detail occurs with Hecate, described in HTLJ as Hera's sister.
- The name "Celestea" is a variant of "Celeste" which derives from the Latin word for "heaven." "Celesta" (ce-les-ta, cel(e)-sta) as a girl's name is a variant of Celeste (Latin), meaning "heavenly." More info can be found here. In ancient Greek, it would be rendered as Κελεστη.
Gallery[]
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