Name origin: Pacific Ocean, the largest on the planet, which covers approximately 46% of Earth’s water surface and about 32% of its total surface, more than its entire land area. Mean depth is 4km; the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench reaches 10.9km. The ocean straddles the International Date Line.
Name origin: Cleopatra, queen of Egypt from about 50 BCE to her death in 30 BCE. Realising she needed Rome’s help to sustain her nation, she became the lover of Julius Caesar and, later, the wife of Mark Antony. However, during the war between Antony and Octavian (Augustus), Antony was defeated and Cleopatra’s kingdom was finally annexed by Rome.
Name origin: Greek; food of the gods. The word ambrosia means immortality, and is often said to have either that effect or longevity on whoever consumes it. The term may not originally have been distinguished from nectar, the other food of the gods.
Name origin: Greek Oreiad nymph. Rhodope was a queen of Thrace and the wife of Haemus. The pair grew hubristic, comparing themselves to Zeus and Hera, and were both turned into mountains as punishment. The Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece are named after her.
Name origin: Unknown. May refer to the Biblical Eve, but this has been doubted due to the usual naming practices of the discoverers.
One of a pair of Roman childhood goddesses, the other being Abeōna. Adeōna is goddess of returning from somewhere, homecomings, safe return and bringing children home safely.
According to Schmadel, the naming “very probably is an allusion to the liberation of France at the time of the discovery.” The liberation here referred to is the Franco-Prussian war in 1870; this choice may have been intended to honour Adolphe Thiers, first president of the French Republic, who negotiated the removal of Prussian troops from France.
Name origin: Trojan prophet in Greek myth. Apollo tried to seduce Kassandra with the gift of prophecy; when he failed (or in some versions she accepted and then changed her mind), unable to rescind her ability, he added the curse that she would never be believed.
Name origin: Helen, Greek daughter of Zeus and Leda, wife of Menelaos and queen of Sparta, famed for her beauty, who was kidnapped by Paris of Troy following a certain incident involving a golden apple and a divine beauty competition, which act caused the Trojan War. After the Greek victory she returns to Sparta.
Roman lunar goddess. Initially revered as a huntress and patron of hunters, Diana later became associated with farms and the cultivated countryside, or where civilisation meets the wilderness. Like Hekate, she had dominion over roadways, particularly three-way crossroads, thereby giving her an underworld aspect. She also oversaw fertility, childbirth, the moon and celestial realms.
