Focus On: (474) Prudentia

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.84 years
Discovered: 13th February 1901 at 22:27 UTC, from Heidelberg, Germany, by Max Wolf
Events at time of discovery:

• February 13 – William McKinley is formally declared the winner of the 1900 U.S. presidential election.
• – At the Mengo Hospital in Uganda, two doctors first note the outbreak of what would become an epidemic of African trypanosomiasis, or "sleeping sickness".
• – Birth of Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist, founder of the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University
• – Birth of Lewis Grassic Gibbon (pen name for James Leslie Mitchell), Scottish novelist

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Naming information

Name origin: Roman personification of prudence
Mythology: Prudentia, whose attributes are a mirror and a snake, is frequently depicted as a pair with Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice. The word "prudence" derives from the Latin prudentia meaning "foresight, sagacity". Prudence is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, including in relation to appropriateness of time and place. By so doing, prudence regulates all the other virtues.

Detail of a mediaeval manuscript page featuring Prudencia (crowned), at top riding a wagon and then a horse to the celestial Empyrean; at bottom, addressing young women.

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Astrological data

Discovery degree: 7+ Virgo
Discovery Sabian: A Five-Year-Old Child Takes a First Dancing Lesson
Discovery nodal signature: Virgo-Pisces
Estimated orbital resonances: Mercury 1:16, Mars 5:9, Ceres 6:5
Discovery chart details: Last quarter phase. Venus was on the chart's IC; Vesta on MC; Juno descending. Prudentia was discovered close to a retrograde Mars. Saturn was tightly semi-square the North Node; Pallas conjunct Chariklo.

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Summary

The astrological relationship to prudence is borne out by various associations; additional meanings may include commitment to learning or information gathering, a sense of duty, a cautious approach to reaching conclusions, and self-knowledge as the foundation of other wisdom.

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Discovery chart for (474) Prudentia: 13th February 1901, 22:27 UTC, Heidelberg, Germany.