Main-belt asteroid 10 Hygiea bears name bears name of the Greco-Roman goddess of health Hygiea (or Hygieia). The given coordinates mark her statue, a part of the Neo-Renaissance fountain located in the middle of Sigmund Freud Square in a North-Moravian town Príbor.
10 Hygiea is the fourth-largest asteroid in the Solar System by volume and mass, and it is located in the asteroid belt. With somewhat oblong diameters of 350–500 km and a mass estimated to be 2.9% of the total mass of the belt, it is the largest of the class of dark C-type asteroids with a carbonaceous surface.
Despite its size, Hygiea appears very dim when observed from Earth. This is due to its dark surface and larger-than-average distance from the Sun. For this reason, many smaller asteroids were observed before Annibale de Gasparis discovered Hygiea on 12 April 1849. At most oppositions, Hygiea has a magnitude that is four magnitudes dimmer than Vesta's, and observing it typically requires at least a 100-mm telescope. However, while at a perihelic opposition, it can often be observed just with 10×50 binoculars.
On 12 April 1849, in Naples, Italy, astronomer Annibale de Gasparis (age 29) discovered Hygiea. It was the first of his nine asteroid discoveries. The director of the Naples observatory, Ernesto Capocci, named the asteroid. He chose to call it Igea Borbonica ("Bourbon Hygieia") in honor of the ruling family of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies where Naples was located.
In 1852, John Russell Hind wrote that "it is universally termed Hygiea, the unnecessary appendage 'Borbonica' being dropped" (as well as the final "ia" in favor of just "a"). The name comes from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, daughter of Asclepius (Aesculapius for the Romans). The name was occasionally misspelled Hygeia in the 19th century, for example in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. [wiki]
The iron-cast fountain with Hygieia was erected here in the turn of 19th and 20th centuries. The goddess' statue in gathered long light dress, holding amphora with growing bowl (source of water) on right shoulder, is staying in the large decorated bowl. Whole fountain stands on a cast chalice-shape plinth with two small side lavatory-shape basins. Fountain was completely reconstructed in 1999.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Hygieia was the daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius, and Epione. She was the goddess and personification of health, cleanliness and sanitation.
Hygieia and her five sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: Hygieia ("Hygiene" the goddess/personification of health, cleanliness, and sanitation), Panacea (the goddess of Universal remedy), Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process), and Aglæe (the goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence, and adornment).
Hygieia also played an important part in her father's cult. While her father was more directly associated with healing, she was associated with the prevention of sickness and the continuation of good health. Her name is the source of the word "hygiene". She was imported by the Romans as the Goddess Valetudo, the goddess of personal health, but in time she started to be increasingly identified with the ancient Italian goddess of social welfare, Salus. [wiki]