Heracles is asteroid #5143, also known as 1991 VL, of the type O, and is a Near Earth Asteroid of the group Apollo. Heracles was discovered by Carolyn Shoemaker, who discovered already 32 comets and more than 800 asteroids. Heracles is named after the Herakles (Ἡρακλῆς) from Greek mythology in Latin spelling. Until now Heracles is the only asteroid, that is named after this mythological character.

Herakles is the most famous of the sons of Zeus. Herakles is a half-god and his mortal mother is Alkmene, the wife of Amphitryos, who was a king of Mykene.

The asteroid #82 is named after Alkmene. She’s a stony Main Belt Asteroid and was discovered in 1864 by Karl Theodor Robert Luther (* 1822; † 1900). This asteroid is of no further relevance. She could only be useful in synastry with Heracles.

Hera tried to kill Herakles already when he was a baby, hence Herakles lived always among mortals and tried to avoid Hera. Although Hera is the patron of marriage and Herakles was married five times at least. Herakles is, similar to Apollo and Chiron, a character, that connects the fates of other characters. Herakles has become a role model for many later heroes (for example He-Man from the Masters of the Universe) additionally. But most famous is Herakles for his twelve heroic deeds. When the number twelve appears in mythology, then this has always the same meaning. The twelve signs of the zodiac get represented! This always held true, from the twelve stages in the journey of Gilgamesh, over the twelve deeds of Heracles, the twelve Israelite tribes, the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, even until the twelve knights of King Arthur’s round table.

Please notice how Leonardo Da Vinci arranged on his painting The Last Supper Jesus’ disciples into four groups of three people each. Thus Leonardo Da Vinci hints to the four elements of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

So Herakles qualifies as a solar hero. Herakles represents neither the light nor the Sun, but belongs nevertheless to their side of a universal polarity, which is also represented by gods of the sky. This side of the universal polarity is usually represented by male gods, while the opposing side of the universal polarity is usually represented by female goddesses of the soil or the Moon. Solar heroes, that come as many persons, are meant to describe the characters of the zodiac signs. Solar heroes, who travel in twelve stages, are meant to describe what you see or should imagine when you look into the sky and follow the zodiac. They are all solar heroes because the zodiac, which they represent in one or the other way, is defined by the course (or yearly journey) of the Sun.

Due to Herakles’ many facets, which are all at once represented by the asteroid Heracles, can’t I give a specific astrological meaning and I deny instead that Heracles is committed to any specific meaning. Heracles is only around to give relevance to other asteroids in natal charts or in synastry charts. Even this only provided that these other asteroids represent characters, that meet Herakles in the mythology.