Baukis and Philemon were a poor elderly couple who were blessed by Zeus and Hermes after showing them hospitality while disguised as peasants. Richer folk in the town had turned the gods away. In consequence, Zeus flooded the rest of the town and turned the simple cottage into an ornate temple.
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Name origin: Unknown. May refer to the Biblical Eve, but this has been doubted due to the usual naming practices of the discoverers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sappho (c.630-570 BCE) was an ancient Greek lyric poet and musician from the island of Lesbos. Widely regarded as an outstanding writer, she was called the Tenth Muse; sadly, much of her work, in total estimated at around 10,000 lines, has been lost. Her poetry is still influential today.
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Freyja is a Norse goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. She is a member of the Vanir.
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