Varda is queen of the Valar (essentially a goddess) in Tolkien’s cosmology, who kindles the first stars before a group of Ainur (consisting of the Valar and their assistants, the Maiar) enter the world they created through their music. Her husband is Manwë. She has Marian characteristics.
Name origin: Greek; one of the Centaurs. Thereus was killed at the Lapith wedding by Theseus; he was a bear hunter “who used to take bears on the mountain slopes of Thessaly, and carry them home angry and alive.”
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.
Name origin: Campania, a region of south-west Italy. Occupied by several Italic tribes since the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE. The Etruscans and Greeks established colonies in the Campanian Plains and in Naples respectively, before it became part of the Roman republic by the end of the 4th century BCE.
Named after the Sibyls, oracles in ancient Greece. Originally there may have been just one Sibyl at a time, but the number eventually increased to nine or ten. Bases included Delphi, Samos, Delos and Clarus. The etymology of the term’s source is unknown.
Name origin: Greek – either a Nereid, or a mortal formed from a statue. Galateia was one of the fifty Nereides and the goddess of calm seas, wooed by Polyphemos with music, milk and cheese.
Zeus ordered Ekho to protect him when he was dallying with her fellow nymphs. She did this by engaging his wife Hera in chat when about to discover her husband’s infidelity. As punishment, Hera cursed Ekho by only allowing her to repeat another’s words. Afterwards, Ekho fell in love with the mortal Narcissus, who spurned her. He wasted away pining for his own reflection, and she eventually did the same in mourning for him.
Name origin: Greek Goddess of memory. In the Greek tradition, Mnemosyne is one of the Titans, the twelve divine children of the earth-goddess Gaia and the sky-god Uranus. She is also the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus.
Name origin: Latin name for the French city of Marseille, from which the independent discover Jean Chacornac sighted it the night following de Gasparis’ discovery.
