Bellona is asteroid #28 and was discovered by Karl Theodor Robert Luther at the Bilk Observatory on the first of March in 1854. Bellona nevertheless is also known by the alternative designation 1951 CC2. Bellona is a stony asteroid and Bellona’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.78 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.15, a period of revolution of 1 692 days, and an inclination of 9.4 degrees.

Bellona is named after Bellōna, the ancient Roman goddess of war. You of course know Mars as the Roman god of war. But this, surprising me too, seems to be a later part of Roman mythology. Duellum was the original word in Latin for a war and hence the goddess of war had the name Duellona. The female name seems to having been easier to derive. The Latin word for war developed to bellum, so the goddess of war was henceforth called Bellōna. She is only recognizable by her attributes helmet, shield, lance, sword, whip, and a chariot drawn by four horses. There seems to be no tale involving Bellōna. Later she was known as sometimes sister, sometimes wife, and sometimes daughter of Mars, the Roman main god of war. Bellōna accompanies him on the battlefield like Horror (Phoibos in Greek mythology) and Terror (Deimos in Greek mythology) also do. So Bellōna isn’t on the same level as war deities like (the Greek) Pallas Athene or Mars. Bellōna is on the level of Deimos and Phobos. While these represent scare and fear, Bellōna represents destruction and bloodshed, all coming together with war.

Bellona obviously is a martial asteroid. Mars as a classic planet has many meanings. Asteroids mythological related with Mars or war deities from other mythologies fulfill more specific tasks. So Pallas presides over strategies, Mars also represents soldiers or their training or their equipment. Bellona represents only senseless violence, destruction, bloodthirstiness, and bloodshed. When a strategy is involved or shrewd plans or traps or also righteous motives, then Bellona isn’t the presiding astrological force. Bellona is worse or more malevolent than Toro because the violence, which I know as the violence of Toro was never bloody or deadly.