Callisto
From Legendary Journeys
This article is about the character. For the episode of the same name, see "Callisto (Episode)".
Welcome to my world, Xena. Now get ready to leave it
- Callisto to Xena, in "Sacrifice"
She was hell-bent on ridding the World of Xena, as it was her (later revealed it was actually Callisto) who killed her family. She wants oblivion for herself - no Tarturus, Afterlife etc.
She was later killed by Xena.
Callisto is played by Hudson Leick.
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[edit] Story
[edit] Early life
Callisto was the daughter of Arleia and the warlord Kyrkus. She also had one sister. She grew up in the little villiage of Cirra. When she still quite little, Cirra was attacked by Xena's and Borias' army. Everything was destroyed, including Callisto's family. She then made her life goal to make Xena's life a misery.
[edit] Vengeance
Callisto's first two episodes set up the themes of hatred, revenge and guilt, and pose the ethical dilemma of how Xena can never put right the damage of her evil past. If she lets Callisto live, she will wreak havoc, kill and maim people. But if she kills Callisto, she is merely finishing the job which she started when she wrecked that little girl's life. In her first episode, we see that Callisto has recruited a small army and spends her days training hard with them until she is 'as good as Xena'. She begins her campaign of revenge by raiding and burning villages and savagely slaughtering people in Xena's name. She hopes to revive Xena's reputation as a villain; planning to kill Xena after destroying her reputation. Xena has no choice but to engage with her, and in a close fight Xena beats her, but cannot kill her. She hands her over to the authorities, who throw her in jail.
However, Callisto later escapes, weaponless, easily crippling and killing her guards. She finds Xena, but is still unable to defeat her, and instead makes her suffer by plunging her sword though the heart of Gabrielle's recently-wedded husband, Perdicas. Xena catches her again, and is wracked with guilt as Callisto taunts her about her past. A fight ensues, and Xena and Callisto fall into quicksand. Xena's inventive wit allows her to struggle free, and she watches doubtfully as Callisto is sucked under. But the ethical dilemma still hangs in the balance: Xena has killed the monster that she created, but still carries the guilt that it was all her fault.
Callisto, works with Ares, God of War to invade Xena's dreams and switch bodies with Xena, so that she is free and Xena is trapped in Tartarus. But Xena persuades Hades to let her return to earth, although still trapped in Callisto's body, where she defeats Callisto and sends her back to Tartarus. Xena remains trapped in Callisto's body for one episode before Ares restores them to their normal selves.
[edit] Immortality and Godhood
Callisto again escapes from Tartarus by making a deal with Hera, Queen of the Gods. Hera allows her back to Earth for one day to kill Hercules, and promises her immortality if she succeeds, but Callisto plans on getting immortality regardless. She poisons Hercules' family, then tricks him into accompanying her to the Tree of Life, where one bite
of a Golden Apple cures all ills, and a whole apple makes a person immortal. Hercules reluctantly agrees, but Callisto traps him, and uses him to reveal the tree and eats a golden apple, becoming immortal and restoring her sanity. Hercules escapes and fights Callisto, inadvertently scarring her in the process, and breaking her sanity once again, and traps her in the Labyrinth. Frustrated, Callisto has only her rage to console her for what appears to be an eternity inside the ruins.
When an Amazon called Velasca eats Ambrosia and becomes a goddess hellbent on killing Gabrielle, Xena makes a risky deal with Callisto. She offers Callisto a chance at the Ambrosia in exchange for her help. Xena tricks her into fighting Velasca for the Ambrosia on a rope bridge over a river of lava, where she gets it and eats it. In her moment of glorious godhood, Xena cuts the ropes and Callisto and Velasca plunge into the lava.
Callisto is later freed from the lava by Gabrielle's evil daughter Hope, sired by Dahak who calls her "the monster lady".[8] In a ploy of mythical proportions, she causes Hope to kill Xena's son Solan, and laughs manically as Xena and Gabrielle's friendship is torn apart. However, Xena defeats her and traps her in a
mine by causing a cave-in. Callisto then appears to Xena and Gabrielle as a manifestation of their own guilt in the musical episode where they eventually reconcile.
Hope later frees Callisto from the mine in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Hope sends her back in time to destroy Hercules and also gives her the Hind's blood. Although she fails to kill Hercules, Callisto uses the Hind's blood to kill Strife. During her time travel, it turns out that the adult Callisto killed her own father accidentally while trying to protect her family from Xena's army, and then filled with sadness and regret went on to kill her mother as well, and then left the "young Callisto" in the burning wreckage. But Iolaus also traveled in time and stopped Callisto from returning to the past, making it so that the event never happened in the first place. At the end of the episode, she is trapped in an interdimensional pocket. She then escapes from this prison right before the events of Sacrifice and the rebirth of Hope.
[edit] Death
By this time, Callisto has had enough of the emotional pain that has tormented her since childhood. Hope spins a cocoon around herself for her transformation from child into adult. Callisto agrees to protect her until she hatches, in exchange for permanent oblivion.
Meanwhile, Xena and Gabrielle ambush a rogue cult who are trying to sacrifice Gabrielle's friend, Seraphin, for the 'return of the godess'. Xena jumps to conclusions and immeadiatly thinks that this is about Callisto. After talking to Seraphin, things start to point in another direction - it isn't Callisto she is being sacrificed to. It's Hope.
Hope is still in a cacoon and being protected by Callisto. Xena finds where they are hiding, and heads straight there. She immobilizes Callisto and gets to a cacooned Hope, just after Ares shows up and takes her away.
Xena works out that Ares must of taken her to the only place she would be safe - The Halls Of War. She realises that there is no possible way that she and Gabrielle could ever battle thier way into such a place on thier own. As luck would have it, they had a willing immortal to help them - Callisto. After Hope reveals that she wants Callisto to be
in Dahak's army instead of being dead, she storms off in anger. She offers to help Xena and Gabrielle on their mission, as long as Xena fufills her wish - to kill her, something that Xena would be more than happy to do.
Whilst on thier way there, Xena and Joxer stage a fight infront of Callisto, where she tells him to 'get lost'. But really Xena intrusts him with the location of The Hind's Blood Dagger and tells him to get purposly captured by Dahak's followers to get into the Halls of War.
The plan is a success, but when Xena tries to kill Hope with it, Gabrielle jumps in and grabs Hope, they both fall into the lava pit and the pair plummit to thier 'deaths'. Upon seeing this Xena is speechless and Callisto is ecstatic. she then says that she now has a reason to live and she has Xena to thank for it. Xena runs up to and before Callisto can react, she plunges the Hind's Blood Dagger into her and says "No More Living For You".
[edit] Afterdeath, Redemption and Reincarnation
Stripped of her powers as a goddess, Callisto is condemned to eternal torment as a demon of Hell. She is, however, given the opportunity to return to the living if she can corrupt Xena and install Caesar as emperor of Rome. She is required to do this without hurting Xena physically, but as a result of her blind rage for Xena she fails at both tasks. She defeats Xena for the only time, by breaking her spine with Xena's own chakram.Callisto is returned to Hell, but her actions set into motion the events leading to Caesar's, Xena's and Gabrielle's deaths. Xena lies critically injured on the ground and Gabrielle tries to defend her, but they are captured by the Roman guards. On the Ides of March, as Caesar declares himself emperor and is murdered by his peers, Xena and Gabrielle are also crucified at Caesar's command.
After her death, the angel Xena encounters the demon Callisto. As an act of redemption for her own guilt at Callisto's suffering, she purges Callisto's guilt, brings her back to the light. Callisto is lifted up and becomes an angel, utterly devoid of the pain and torment that she had always known, and in exchange, Xena is turned into a demon, sacrificing her own eternal happiness to save her. The sacrifice of lives and souls is a recurring theme of the series. Xena frequently tries to sacrifice herself for redemption, and this is partly what gives her such fearlessness in the face of death. But this sacrifice for Callisto has its own unexpected rewards, as Xena is later resurrected by the
[edit] Notable Kills
- Xena: Warrior Princess - "The Greater Good" (Although later revived)
- Perdicus, Husband of Gabrielle - "Return of Callisto"
- Strife, God of Strife and of the Goddess of Retribution, Discord - "Armageddon Now I"
- Solan - "Maternal Instincts" (With Hope)
- Her own parents - "Armageddon Now II" (though later negated by a time paradox)
- Priest of Dahak's Blood - "Sacrifice I"
- Catalyst of Xena and Gabrielle's crucifixion - "The Ides of March"
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Xena: Warrior Princess
- "The Bitter Suite" (as Aleph)
- "Sacrifice: Part 1"
- "Sacrifice: Part 2"
- "The Ides of March"
- "Fallen Angel"
- "Seeds of Faith"
[edit] Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
- "Surprise"
- "Stranger in a Strange World"
- "Armageddon Now: Part 1"
- "Armageddon Now: Part 2"
- "Yes, Virginia, There is a Hercules"
