The name Arrokoth was chosen by the New Horizons team to represent the Powhatan people indigenous to the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland in the eastern United States, and formally announced with the permission of the Powhatan nation’s Pamunkey Indian Tribe elders.
Focus On: (486958) Arrokoth Read Post »
Name origin: Make Make is considered the supreme divinity of Easter Island and the most important mythological being in the Rapanui worldview. Make Make was the creator of all things, the first man and the first woman, and he had the power to reward the good people and punish the bad ones. The most important ritual in honour of Make Make was the bird man (Tangata Manu) competition in which prominent contestants sent helpers to obtain the first manutara (sooty tern) egg.
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Name origin: Greek goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of strife, discord, contention and rivalry. Eris was often portrayed specifically as the daimona of the strife of war, haunting the battlefield and delighting in human bloodshed. Because of Eris’ disagreeable nature she was the only goddess not to be invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. When she turned up anyway and was refused admittance, she raged and threw in the golden apple that famously led to the Trojan War. She was closely identified with Enyo, the goddess of war and a close companion of Ares.
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Name origin: Hawai’ian goddess of fertility and childbirth. Mother of many important deities (including Pele, Hi’iaka and Namaka) and herself among the first worshipped on the Hawai’ian islands. She repeatedly transforms herself from an old woman to a young girl, and returns to her homeland periodically to give birth to further generations of humans.
Focus On: (136108) Haumea Read Post »
Name origin: Roman Goddess of salt water and wife of Neptune. Salacia was the personification of the calm and sunlit aspect of the sea (although she may also have represented the gushing and overbearing waters). Name means “the salty one”.
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Name origin: Greek son of Zeus and Europa. Because of his just and upright life, after death Rhadamanthus was appointed a judge of the dead and the ruler of Elysium, a blissfully beautiful area of the Underworld where those favoured by the gods spent their life after death.
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Name origin: Hindu god of water and the celestial ocean. Varuna was also the god of law in the underwater world, and may have been replaced eventually by Indra. He is said to have unlimited knowledge.
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Name origin: Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. As one of the principal Olympian gods, there are multiple myths about her.
Focus On: (1388) Aphrodite Read Post »
Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, considered one of the main qualities any good Roman should possess, and the Goddess of Truth, daughter of Saturn. The Greek equivalent is Aletheia.
Focus On: (490) Veritas Read Post »
Name origin: Roman goddess of justice. Justice was one of the virtues celebrated by Roman emperor Augustus, and a temple of Iustitia was established in Rome by his successor Tiberius.
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