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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[]

Since Celesta is The Olympian personified of Death she has the Powers and Abilities of all Gods have like, but her special power is:

  • 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.


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, 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 Hades 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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