THE NAME

Well...guess what I found out about the name Shaina? It's actually a Hebrew name! Believe it or not, I have known three Jewish women here in the States named Shaina. The name means "beautiful". Now I don't know how Kurumada sensei came up with this name, if he made it up or if there is also a Japanese name that you can write and pronounce the same...Dunno, but I love it!

THE FURY

In the Italian version of the anime, which changed almost all of the names of the characters, Shaina becomes Tisifone. Tisifone was actually one of the three furies, who were the spirits that would persecute people by the sinner soul, to tickle their conscience. They were honored with wine, milk, and honey offerings. They had snakes in place of their hair, just like Medusa, and dog's faces. I don't know why they chose this name for her, but for sure it raised her undeserved "evil" reputation.

PERSONALITY

Well...at this point I realize that I cannot just give my point of view and give you the correct explanation of Shaina's personality. Of course we'll have some comments by all of the members of the club, and yours if you like... For now just take mine...(and try to agree otherwise I'll go get my lupara again!). Ok, now after the inevitable snap of madness of the maintainer, let's turn serious again. Hmmm..So, the intro to this site has been inspired to me by different people whom I have been exchanging comments with about Shaina. With great disappointment, I have found out that the main idea about this strong character is that she is nothing but a psycho, and her infatuation in Seiya doesn't do anything but helping her madness!!! Now I don't really know where all of these concepts come from, since at least from watching the anime I have never encountered such an attitude coming from her. Shaina was just a bad guy in the beginning, just like most of the Gold Saints, who turns good in the end...She surely looks really "Mediterranean" to me: strong, passionate, impulsive, but are these things enough to label her like a person nobody can reason with? All I see in Shaina is a great, brave woman with an unnatural spirit of sacrifice, who doesn't esitate a minute when it comes to give her life for a cause! Of course, the most important person in her life is Seiya, but somebody who is capable to love the way she does doesn't deserve the reputation that she has among fans of Saint Seiya, and when somebody is capable to love that way, then that person is capable to love that way everybody, and she is going to be a person whom friends will always be sure they can count on.

 

THE OPHIUCHUS

Shaina is the Ophiuchus Silver Saint, and if there is a woman that could deserve the gold rank, that would be her!
What or who is Ophiucus? Well, the story line of the serpent-holder comes straight from Asclepius, Greek God of Medicine, son of Apollo and a nymph...He was said to be capable to bring the dead back to life, and who,while in the process to bring Orion the hunter back to life, was killed by a thunderbolt hurled at him by Zeus. It seems like Hades, Zeus' brother and God of the underworld, was alarmed by the fact that Asclepius might put him out of work, so he pushed Zeus to accept his request. Zeus later felt sorry for his action, which had been purely politic, and set Asclepius in the sky, by giving him the Greek name "Ophiuchus", which means," Serpent holder"(from the greek ophis=snake and echeim=have hold). The constellation represents Asclepius in the act of holding the snake from which he is going to take the venom to revive the dead...For this reason ,the snake creeping around a cane has been taken as the universal symbol of medicine. Now of course I could spend hours only talking about the Ophiuchus, but if you want to know more, even incredible facts about the issue of the Ophiuchus being the 13th sign, (Like did you know that this constellation had always been int the zodiacal belt, but it wasn't chosen as a sign because the fact that there weren't 13 months was making things difficult?) you HAVE to visit Ophiuchus the serpent holder. It's the site from which I also took the picture. A great site that tells you everything, I mean EVERYTHING about this amazing constellation, and on this site you'll also find an interesting study of the relationship between the Ophiuchus and the Scorpio, who is said to having taken the place in the zodiac destined to Ophiuchus, and a lot of intersting things, like a connection between Ophiucus and the Egyptian Imhotep: A MUST VISIT.