5143 Heracles & Heracles - The Heracles' Fountain in Wallenstein Garden / Heraklova kašna ve Valdštejnské zahrade (Prague)
N 50° 05.426 E 014° 24.475
33U E 457646 N 5548853
Apollo-group asteroid 5143 Heracles (1991 VL) is named for the Greek divine hero Heracles. The given coordinates mark Heracles statue, a part of the Heracles' Fountain in Wallenstein garden at Prague's Lesser Town.
Waymark Code: WMVDH3
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 04/05/2017
Views: 30
Apollo-group asteroid 5143 Heracles (1991 VL) is named for the Greek divine hero Heracles. The given coordinates mark Heracles statue, a part of the Heracles' Fountain in Wallenstein garden at Prague's Lesser Town.
5143 Heracles, provisional designation 1991 VL, is a rare-type and highly eccentric binary asteroid classified as near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 4.8 km in diameter. It was discovered on 7 November 1991, by American astronomer
Carolyn Shoemaker at
Palomar Observatory in California. [wiki]
Bronze sculpture of Heracles, Centaur Nessus and Deianira by famous Mannerist artist Adrian de Vries is a key part of Heracles' Fountain in Wallenstein Garden. Sculpture is copy of original, which was in 1648 stolen by Swedish army plundering Prague.
The sculpture depicts one of Heracles affairs, connected with
his marriage to Deianira, for whom he had to fight the river god Achelous. Soon after they wed, Heracles and Deianira had to cross a river, and a centaur named Nessus offered to help Deianira across but then attempted to rape her. Enraged, Heracles killed Nessus and liberated his wife.
Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.
Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and Laomedon all found out to their cost. [wiki]