Alumna: Cecilia Acosta
August 2009
Introduction
In the 15th century, Sir Thomas Malory writes “Le Morte Darthur,” a book which was divided into twenty- one volumes, chaptered and imprinted by Vida Scudder in the year 1485. The book depicts the adventures of King Arthur, the legendary hero of the Britons, and of his noble knights of the Round Table. Arthur’s deeds are told in this book as well as in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (1138) and as in many other sources of British History. The king’s stories play a key part in the development of the English history and in people’s identification with his country by creating a sense of national unity (MacColl, A. 1999).
However, as stated by Sally K. Slocum in the book “Popular Arthurian Traditions” (1992), “Arthurian themes and symbolism continue to be widely disseminated throughout popular culture,” that is to say, that some of the motifs and artifacts from the Arthurian legend can still be detected in nowadays’ films, novels, comic strips or cartoons. One ex-ample of this is “Knights of the Zodiac,” a contemporary Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada, and later adapted to anime. As this manga series suggests a number of allusions to the Arthurian mythos, this paper will attempt to show how the elements from the traditional legend remain present in the 20th century series “Knights of the Zodiac.”
Overview of Malory’s adaptation of the Arthurian Myth and the series “Saint Seiya: Hades- Ova 31”
The Arthurian legend tells the story of King Arthur, son of Uther, who was raised in the countryside by Sir Ector and grew up together with his brother Kay. When his father dies, Arthur takes the crown and becomes the king of Britain by pulling an enchanted sword out of a stone. He rules over the country with the help of Merlin, the wizard, and his noble knights and lords of the Round Table. Arthur defends his country by the use of Excalibur, the enchanted sword, against the invaders who try to conquer his country.
Generally speaking, this legend can be analyzed within a system, whose outer boundaries might be represented by Britain, the country in which the legend takes place. This system is composed by three main elements. As a first element, it is possible to dis-tinguish the head of the system, King Arthur, the leading figure for whom the knights fight for against the evils. The second element is the figure of the knights, who fight to-gether for their king. Finally, the third element is the evil that frightens the country. Ac-cording to Malory’s adaptation, this element is presented as “The Romans” (Le Morte Dar-thur, Book V- Chap II), among other invaders, who break the order by trying to enter by force to corrupt and attack the system.
The following graphic may be applied to represent the Arthurian System:
On the other hand, the manga series “Saint Seiya: Hades,” tells the story of Phoenix Ikki, Cygnus Hyoga, Andromeda Shun, Dragon Shiryu and Pegasus Seiya, five knights who fight against Hades, Zeus’ brother. Hades, the Underworld god, fights together with his allies, the 108 spectres, the god Hypnos, who is the personification of sleep, and his twin brother Thanatos, god of death. Every 243 years, this evil god incarnates into a hu-man being and tries to cover the world with darkness. Throughout the saga, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and daughter of Zeus, tries to bring back peace and hope to the Earth. Apart from being protected by the five main knights, she is also secured by other knights. These are the Gold Saints (Aries Shion, Aries Mu, Taurus Aldebaran, Gemini Saga, Gemini Kanon, Cancer Deathmask, Leo Aiolia, Virgo Shaka, Libra Dohko, Scorpion Milo, Sagittarius Aiolos, Capricorn Shura, Aquarius Camus and Pisces Aphrodite), the Sil-ver Saints, the Bronze Saints and the Steel Saints. Athena and her knights fight against Hades and his allies in the Elysian Fields.
According to the Britannica Enciclopedia, in the Greek tradition, the Elysium was:
“The paradise to which heroes on whom the gods conferred immortality were sent. It probably was retained from Minoan religion. In Homer’s writings the Elysian Plain was a land of perfect happiness at the end of the earth, on the banks of the Oceanus River. (…) In the earlier authors, only those specially favoured by the gods entered Elysium and were made immortal. (…) Later writers made it a particular part of Hades, as in Virgil, Aeneid, Book VI.”
As in the Arthurian legend, “Saint Seiya: Hades” can be analyzed within a system, which is “Good,” because the threat is Hades expanding evilness throughout the world and over people. This system is also composed by three main elements. As a first ele-ment, in the saga there are five main knights, named Ikki, Hyoga, Shun, Shiryu and Seiya, who fight against other knights to protect the Earth from the mischievous Hades. As the second element, it is possible to find some evil forces, presented as the 108 spec-tres, Thanatos and Hypnos, and the god Hades, who want to kill the goddess Athena, her noble knights, and spread their evilness throughout the entire planet. Finally, the third element is the head of the system, goddess Athena, who is a young woman, untrained for battle. However, her “cosmo ” is huge and exceeds human cosmos infinitely. Her inten-tion is to protect Earth and its living creatures.
The following graphic may be used to represent the System of “Saint Seiya: Hades”:
Comparison between the Arthurian System and that of “Saint Seiya: Hades”
When referring to both systems, the differences can be more easily perceived than the similarities. In the Arthurian legend, the system is Briain, a nation, while in the manga series, it is a virtue. This is important because having as a structured system a nation, which includes particular customs, religion, language and history is not the same as having as a system a virtue. Virtues are proper of human beings; however, in this se-ries, positive and negative virtues become also part of the spiritual word.
In the series, the equivalent to Arthur as a head of the system is Athena. The main difference between Arthur and Athena is that the first is human and a man, while Athena is the goddess of heroic endeavour, courage, love and compassion, and is portrayed as a woman. However, one similitude is that although Athena is a goddess, she is presented as a sensitive young girl, characterized by innocence and kindness. She also has human reactions and feelings, because, for example, it is possible to see in the series when she laughs and cries. Arthur’s emotions and feeling are also shown in Malory’s adaptation when the author describes how honest he was when confessing that he took the sword out of the stone, how considerate he was when he decided to look for his brother lost sword or how courageous he was when he undoubtedly accepted his enemies’ challenges. Also, he can be compared with a goddess because although Arthur is human, he might be considered as having a divine nature. This divine nature is shown in Malory’s text when, in chapter VII, it is told that King Arthur “is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another place”
Another similitude that can be found between the legend and the series is the pres-ence of a group of knights who fight together to reach a particular objective. In this case, both groups of knights are human beings who have the same denomination, that is to say, “knights”, and who are courageous, brave and spirited. In the Arthurian legend, a group of noble knights advise the king and act as councillors in particular meetings. These are known as “The Knights of the Round Table.” Apart from this, the knights fight in battles to protect their king and nation. In the manga series, apart from the five main bronze knights, the gold, silver and steel knights fight to protect their goddess Athena, the Earth and to honour the values of love, goodness and friendship. However, it is pos-sible to find the difference that not all the knights in the manga series are human beings. The gold knights are Saints of the Zodiac, saints from particular constellations, with hu-man feature.
The evil figures in both systems are completely different. In the Arthurian myth pre-sented by Malory, the evil figures are the invaders that want to conquer Britain or defeat King Arthur. These are humans, and most of the times, leaders of an army also com-posed by loyal knights. In the manga series, the evil is represented by the Underworld king, Hades, and his followers, a group of 108 black spectres; the god of the death, Thanatos, and the god of sleep, Hypnos. They want to kill Athena and her knights to take the control of the Earth and all the living creatures on it by spreading their evilness. The enemies, in this case, are dark gods and the souls of traitorous knights who prowl on Earth.
More elements in common
Apart from the previously mentioned elements in common, it is probable to find more similarities and differences. Firstly, it is important to mention the presence of armour, swords and shields when the knights attack other troops in the case of the Arthurian leg-end, for example Arthur’s sword “Excalibur." In the saga, and specially when they attack evil spirits, the knights in “Saint Seiya” use swords, and shiny armours to defend them-selves.
Secondly, magic elements are present in both, the myth and the series. The Arthurian myth incorporates Merlin, the wizard, who enchants a sword. Also, Gawaine’s ghost and the ladies who follow him appear in the legend. Another magic element may be seen when a hand comes out of the water and grabs Excalibur and vanishes. The latter ap-pears in Malory’s work when Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to throw his sword into the water to see if something strange happens. In the manga series, each knight casts a different spell. For example, one of Hyoga’s powers is “Diamond Dust,” a rain of diamonds; Seiya’s technique is “Pegasus Meteor Fist,” Shiryu’s is “Rozan One Hundred Dragons Force,” Shun’s is “Nebula Chain” and Ikki’s technique is “Phoenix Illusion Demonic Fist.”
Conclusion
All in all, in can be said that many characteristics of the system and elements from the Arthurian legend remain present in nowadays’ sagas like “Saint Seiya: Hades.” Popu-lar culture still accepts knights fighting for justice and protecting the world from evil forces. As analyzed in this paper, “Saint Seiya: Hades” is a clear example of a modern piece which includes features of the traditional legend. Through this manga series, and many other works, the adventures of King Arthur will remain alive and the positive values of friendship, cooperation, honesty, wisdom and goodness will be spread out through the new generations.
Bibliography
•Britannica Enciclopedia (2001) Nicholas Carr (ed.) [online]
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/185418/Elysium
•Maccoll, Alan (March 1999) “King Arthur and the Making of an English Britain.” History Today. Vol 49, Issue 3. History Today Ltd.
•Malory, Sir Thomas (1485) Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory’s Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and 2. [online] Kel-ler, Charles (ed.) University of Virginia (1994)
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal2Mor.html
•Scudder, Vida (1917) Le Morte Darthur of Sir Thomas Malory & Its Sources. New York: E.P. Dutton
•Slocum, Sally (ed.) (1992) Popular Arthurian Traditions. Bowling Green, OH: Bowl-ing Green State University Popular Press.
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