Daphne is asteroid #41 and of the type C or Ch. Daphne was discovered by the German-French astronomer Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt at the Paris Observatory. Daphne’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.77 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.27, a period of revolution of 1 680 days, and an inclination of 15.8 degrees. Daphne’s orbit is with Mars’ orbit in a 9:22 resonance. Daphne is of an ellipsoid shape and a size of approximately 213 × 160 km. Daphne is orbited by a very small “asteroid moon”, that belongs to the tiniest natural satellites in relation to the primary body in the Solar System. This natural satellite got the designation S/2008 (41) 1 and the name Peneius. The diameter of Peneius is only 1.1 % of the diameter of Daphne. The attempt of watching Daphne for a second time resulted, due to incorrect orbital calculations, in the discovery of Melete.

Daphne is named after Dáphnē (Δάφνη), a nymph from Greek mythology. The name was chosen by Urbain Le Verrier, who was the director of the Paris Observatory. The “asteroid moon” Peneius is named after the river god Pēneiós (Πηνειός) in Latinized form. The river is located in Thessallia, still exists, and is now called Pinios (Πηνειός). Dáphnē (Δάφνη) is the daughter of a river god, but several of them are suggested as her father, Pēneiós (Πηνειός) is only one of the possibilities.

Leúkippos (Λεύκιππος), a prince of the Greek area Pisa (Πῖσα), and also the god Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) fell in love with Dáphnē (Δάφνη). Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) had ridiculed Eros and he reacted with shooting a golden arrow at Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) and a black arrow at Dáphnē (Δάφνη). This resulted in unrequited love. Leúkippos (Λεύκιππος) could have had a better chance, so a ruse of Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) resulted in Leúkippos (Λεύκιππος) getting killed. Then Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) chased Dáphnē (Δάφνη), who seemingly was responsible for the death of Leúkippos (Λεύκιππος). But she knew that Apóllōn (Ἀπόλλων) was chasing her because he wanted her for himself. Dáphnē (Δάφνη) wasn’t pleased, but tried to escape and when she was exhausted she prayed that her alluring beauty would disappear. So either Pēneiós (Πηνειός) or Zeus turned her into a laurel tree. The name Dáphnē (Δάφνη) means laurel, so the laurel tree is named after the nymph Dáphnē (Δάφνη).

Laurel is known as a magical plant and said to increase prophetical skills. This is in good accordance with the discovery of Melete because of trying to watch Daphne. Melete is the muse of practice, thought, and contemplation. But Dáphnē (Δάφνη) didn’t follow a thoughtful plan in her tale, so Daphne representing being thoughtful is unlikely. Daphne could in relation to Melete be similar as Epimetheus in relation to Prometheus. Dáphnē (Δάφνη) did escape successfully. So Daphne could represent intuition or in particular female intuition or Daphne simply represents laurel.