Mythology

Princess Serenity, Endymion, Luna, Artemis, and Diana
     The names of the Moon Princess, the Earth Prince, and the Guardian Cats parallel famous individuals from ancient mythology that are connected to the moon.

Selene (Roman: Luna)
     Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon and brother to Helios, god of the sun. There are many similarities between Selene and Diana, but notable differences as well. For Example, Diana was a huntress, and a virgin, but Selene was neither. Some stories say that she had fifty daughters by Endymion. Tsuki-Yomi is the Japanese Shinto moon god, who killed the goddess of food, Uke Mochi.

Endymion
     The Greek Endymion, son of Aethus and king of Elis, was a handsome young sheperd who resided on Mount Latmus in Caria. Endymion was loved by the moon (Selene), who put him into a eternal sleep so that she could visit him every evening. Selene bore the sleeping Endymion 50 daughters.

Artemis (Roman: Diana)
     Artemis (Greek) was a daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apllo. She was a virgin, and was the goddess of the hunt, chasity, and fertility. Artemis was also connected to childbirth, and had the power of inflicting or healing sickness. As a goddess of birth, she became related to the lunar cycle, and thus was a moon goddess. She was represented in a tucked up gown with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

The Planets
     The nine planets in the Solar System, with the exception of the Earth, and named after figures in Roman mythology. Their equivalent Greek names are given in parentheses.

Mercury (Greek: Hermes)
     Mercury, the messenger-god of Jupiter, was the god of story-telling, eloquence, commerce, and games of chance. He was the prematurely born son of Jupiter and Maia (a fertility goddess). Mercury seemed to be a very intelligent baby; by noon of the day of his birth, he left his cradle and invented the lyre, building it from the shell of a tortoise. Hermes was the god of good luck, wealth, commerce, sleep, and dreams. He was a patron of merchants, thieves, and deception, the messenger and herald of gods, and the conductor of souls of the dead to Hades. Hermes appeared as a young man, wearing a broad brimmed hat and winged sandals, holding caduceus (Hermes's staff, which was the symbol of the art of medicine.)

Venus (Greek: Aphrodite)
     Aphrodite was the child of Zeus and a Titan, who emerged from the sea foam at birth (in some accounts, Aphrodite simply emerges from the foam), and thus is sometimes called the "Foam born." She was the goddess of love, charm, beauty, and the impulses that bind men together in social communion. Aphrodite appeared as the wife of Hephaetus, the mother of Eros, and the lover of Ares (the Roman god, Mars.)

Mars (Greek: Ares)
     Mars was the god of war, one of the chief gods of the pantheon, who was associated with military power and glory. Mars was driven by rage and violence, and preffered spending his days battling in bloody combat. However, the Greek Ares (sonf of Zeus and Hera) was a ferocious, brutal, blustering, and cowardly god of war. He was hated by all the gods and goddesses, with the exception of Aphrodite and her sister, Eris (daughter of discord.)

Jupiter (Greek: Zeus)
     Jupiter, or Jove, was the god of the heavens and the Earth, the god of justice, and the ruler over all the other gods. Zeus was the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. At the age of maturity, he overthrew his father, and established the rule of the Olympian gods. Zeus was the supreme deity, the most powerful of the gods. He was a sky god, a god of rain, and the god of thunder and thunnderbolts. Zeus was a promiscuous god and took many lovers, including his sisters, and some mortal women.

Saturn (Greek: Cronus/Cronos/Kronos)
     The Roman king-god Saturn was a god of the harvest who begot the major Roman gods. The Greek Cronus, son of Uranus and Gaea, was the god of time and the mightiest Titan of them ll. Cronus and his sister Rhea had six children (the olympians), but Cronus ate the first five newborns to prevent them from one day overthrowing him. Rhea saved the sixth child, Zeus, who indeed overthrow him.

Uranus (Greek: Uranus)
     In Roman Mythology, Uranus personified the starry evening sky, who came forth spontaneously from Gaea, the Earth. He was also the husband of Gaea, who together fathered the Titans, the Cyclops, the hundred-handed monsters, and other creatures.

Neptune (Greek: Poseidon)
     Neptune was the Roman god of water, rain, and fertility, also known as the King of the Sea or Ocean. Neptune and the water nymph, Amphrite, married and had several children. The Greek Poseidon was originally the god of earthquakes and water, but that changed to the supreme god of the sea, and sometimes the god of horses. He was said to be tepestuous, violent, and vindictive; he was rarely peaceful.

Pluto (Greek: Hades)
     Pluto or Hades is the lord of the Underworld. He was a gloomy, stern, and dull god who was also connected to Plutus, a being who personifies wealth. Little is known about this particular god, other than his abduction of Persephone (Roman: Proserpina.) "Hades" is also a name for the Underworld.