Libussa is asteroid #264 and also known as A886 YA. Libussa’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.80 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.14, a period of revolution of 1 711 days, and an inclination of 10.4 degrees. Libussa was discovered by the German-American university teacher and astronomer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters at the Litchfield Observatory of the Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA.

Libussa is named after the Bohemian woman Libuše, who is the mythological founder of the Czech city Prague. The tale of Libuše is one of the only four grand tales of Czech mythology. The first tale describes the creation of the world. The second tale is the arrival of Čech. The three brothers Čech, Lech, and Rus were searching some frugal land to the purpose to settle there. They came from where nowadays is Belarus and stood on the Říp Hill in 644 A.D. From there they discovered frugal land, settled there and called the land Čechy. Čech shall also have been known as Boemus, that was his Latin name. Hence Čechy also has been called Boemia. This again is a Latin name and the modern name Bohemia shall be derived from it.

The third tale is the tale of Libuše, also known by the Latin name Libussa. The descendants of Čech were said to live like wild animals. But they once suffered an epidemic. An unnamed woman prophesied that founding a city and making a man, who only plowed his fields, king would end the epidemic. The Bohemian people followed the advice and the epidemic ended. In already clearly christian times the unnamed woman got the name Libuše and the elder sisters Kazi and Teta. Boemia shall have been land, which got cleared by the Deluge. This also proves adoptions from christian faith for Czech mythology. Libuše, Kazi, and Teta were the daughters of Krok. Teta was a priestess, Kazi a healer, Libuše had the gift of prophecy. Krok was a judge and found that the gift of prophecy is useful for this profession, so decided that Libuše should be his successor. When she spoke her first verdict, the male half of the population of Boemia objected it because she was a woman. The people would only follow a man. Libuše should marry, so that somebody could lead the Bohemian people. But the Bohemian men also conspired and nobody agreed to marry her, so that they would never have to listen to her. Libuše knew because of her gift of prophesy that there was a man, who was plowing his fields and not knowing about the conspiracy. She told her councilmen where to find him and the marriage of this guy, named Přemysl (what simply means the plowman), with Libuše was arranged and took place. After the wedding, the people of Boemia were ordered to build a castle and a town, named Prague or in Czech Praha. So Prague was founded in the eighth century.

In the fourth tale, Libuše passed away and the female half of the population of Boemia elected Vlasta as their new leader. The female Bohemians lived like Amazons and refused to follow any man. These Czech Amazons built a castle and named it Děvín (meaning girls’ castle). The men then built a castle and named it Chrasten. Both were close to the location of the later castle Vyšehrad, which is known as the castle of Prague. Both were meant to be the administrative seat of Boemia. A war men versus women began. But both sides soon understood that their war was a ridiculous way to end the Bohemian people. So a festival, lasting three days, was held to establish and celebrate peace. During the first night of the festival each man abducted a woman and so couples were formed and women did no longer live like Amazons, but accepted their men as their leaders. Later variants of the tale add a personal feud between Šárka, the most beautiful of all women, and the noble man Ctirad. This part of the tale got more variants, which got bloodier and bloodier over time. In some variants Ctirad is tortured to death, in other variants he survives and takes revenge by either drowning Šárka in the Moldavia River or burying her alive.

While the third tale describes the most important events in the life of Libuše, the fourth tale describes what happened as soon as she was gone. Hence both are important for the interpretation of Libussa. Prague has a city ward, which is named Libuš. Maybe Libussa also is a place name asteroid hinting to this city ward. But basically Libussa represents a female leader not accepted by men, while accepted by women, who refuse to follow any man.