Name origin: Unknown. May refer to the Biblical Eve, but this has been doubted due to the usual naming practices of the discoverers.
Focus On: (164) Eva Read Post »
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.
Focus On: (145) Adeona Read Post »
Name origin: Toulouse in France, where the asteroid was discovered. Schmadel says the city was celebrated for the cultivation of the sciences; it is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe (founded in 1229) and several prestigious higher education schools, most notably in aerospace engineering.
Focus On: (138) Tolosa Read Post »
Name origin: Thessalian princess in Greek myth. Kyrene was the daughter of King Hypseus of the Lapiths. She was a famed huntress who guarded her father’s herds on Mount Pelion, killing predators. One day, when she was wrestling a lion, the god Apollo saw her and at once fell in love. He carried her to the Hill of Myrtles (Myrtoessa) in Libya, where she bore him a son named Aristaios.
Focus On: (133) Cyrene Read Post »
Name origin: Greek mythical daughter of Agamemnon and Klytaemnestra. After their mother murders their father, Elektra and her brother Orestes plot to kill Klytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus in revenge, on the orders of the Delphic Oracle.
Focus On: (130) Elektra Read Post »
Name origin: A Theban princess in Greek tales; daughter of Oedipus. Antigone rebels against her uncle King Creon’s directive not to allow her brother Polynices a proper burial.
Focus On: (129) Antigone Read Post »
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.
Focus On: (125) Liberatrix Read Post »
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.
Focus On: (114) Kassandra Read Post »
Name origin: Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy.
Focus On: (100) Hekate Read Post »
Rhea Silvia was forced to become a Vestal Virgin by her uncle Amulius to prevent her conceiving, but Mars had other ideas. Their sons were sent to die but rescued and suckled by a she-wolf, and eventually grew up to overthrow Amulius and reinstate their grandfather Numitor as king, before moving on to found Rome.
Focus On: (87) Sylvia Read Post »
