Stateira was a queen of ancient Persia who died about 400 BCE; wife of Artaxerxes II. She had a son, who became Artaxerxes III. She was a popular ruler, apparently because she talked to ordinary people, but did not get on well with her mother-in-law Parysatis, who eventually poisoned her.
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Name origin: Simeïs Observatory and the town of Simeïs, Crimea, Ukraine, where the object was first discovered. A total of 150 minor planets were found at the observatory, which operated as a research site until the mid-1950s and is now used for studying satellite orbits.
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Aguntum was an ancient Roman site in what is now East Tirol, Austria (about 4km east of Lienz, the discoverer’s birthplace). The city was likely built as a mining and trading centre due to local supplies of iron, copper, zinc and gold.
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Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in Middlesex, Jamaica. It was laid out in 1816, and named after Viscount Mandeville, the eldest son of the Duke of Manchester, who was then governor of Jamaica.
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Auravictrix is Latin for ‘victory against the wind’ (named for the first Schütte-Lanz zeppelin flights in 1911). The Schütte-Lanz company was an early competitor of the more famous airships built by Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
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Name origin: Desdemona, character in Shakespeare’s Othello. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid’s provisional designation, containing the letters “DM”. Desdemona is the faithful wife of Othello whose reputation is muddied by the villain Iago.
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Name origin: Greek Naiad at Delphi who, to flee Apollo’s pursuit, threw (or transformed) herself into the sacred springs now bearing her name. The water from the springs bestowed the gifts of prophecy and poetry.
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Latona is the Roman name for Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus, who was forced to flee Hera’s wrath to give birth in safety. There is no evidence of an independent mythology.
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Germanic goddess associated with water and wagons. Only priests were allowed to touch the cart of Nerthus, which was kept in a sacred grove on an island. When the priest found her to be present by the cart, it was drawn on procession; everywhere it went celebrations took place.
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Olympia, officially Archaia Olympia, was a Panhellenic religious sanctuary in ancient Greece, where the early Olympic Games were held from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE, before being restored in 1894. The games were held in the name of Zeus, and drew visitors from the entire Greek world
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