Jokaste is an asteroid from Heretical Oracles’ list. I’m not sure why this asteroid is deemed important. Jokaste is named after the mother of Oedipus.

Jokaste is asteroid #899 and one of the many Main Belt Asteroids, that astronomers seem not to be interested in. Jokaste was discovered by Max Wolf.

Also named after the mother of Oedipus is Iocaste, that is also known as S/2000 J 3 or as Jupiter XXIV. Iocaste is one of Jupiter’s small and outer satellites and orbits Jupiter in the opposite direction of Jupiter’s rotation. Among Jupiter’s satellites exist orbital groups. Iocaste belongs to the orbital group Ananke, a group of retrograde irregular satellites, named after Ananke, that is Jupiter’s satellite Jupiter XII. Ananke is the largest satellite of the Ananke-group and it is disputed how many members it has. The number varies from eight to sixteen.

The name of the mother of Oedipus correctly is Iokaste (Ἰοκάστη), although this could also be transliterated as Jokaste. Sometimes she’s called by the name Epikaste. She was the second wife of the Theban king Laios. While it is undisputed that Oedipus was the son of Laios, a minority of Greek writers of whom Epimenides (Ἐπιμενίδης) is still known as a source on Greek mythology, insists that Eurykleia was the mother of Oedipus. Eurykleia was either the first wife or a concubine of Laios. The majority of Greek writers believes that Iokaste was the mother of Oedipus. Iokaste knew that Laios wanted to kill Oedipus because of an oracle. So when Laios returned without Oedipus soon after his birth, she believed that Oedipus was dead. Many years later married Iokaste the man, who killed her husband Laios. This man is Oedipus. Neither Iokaste nor Oedipus recognize the other because Oedipus never knew his mother and Iokaste believed that her son or step-son was dead since many years. Oedipus frees Thebes of the Sphinx and wins the throne of Thebes and Thebes’ queen Iokaste as a prize this way. Later writers try to turn Iokaste into a pervert for marrying her son and then having even children with him. But all early versions state clearly that Iokaste and Oedipus learn very soon that Oedipus is Iokaste’s son and Iokaste reacts with hanging herself. All early versions agree with each other that all of Oedipus four children, his daughters Antigone and Ismene as well as his sons Eteokles and Polyneikes, were born by Oedipus’ second wife, who is Euryganeia (Εὐρυγάνεια) or Eurygane (Εὐρυγάνη). There’s no reason to suspect any anomaly in Iokaste’s behaviour.

The astrological force Jokaste can’t be thrilling when neither the asteroid nor the mythological character is peculiar. Her only feature, which I find remarkable, is that she is attractive to men of the generation following her own generation. It is of course possible that they only wanted the throne of Thebes, but not the trophy wife, that came together with it. Then again can the bait also be seen as a feature of Jokaste. Without it wouldn’t anything remain, that could be said about her. So Jokaste is representing a woman, who is able to maintain her attractiveness over a long period of time. It is very unlikely that Jokaste could represent anything else too.