Melusina is asteroid #373 and also known as 1893 AJ and as A893 RA. Melusina’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 3.11 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.15, a period of revolution of 2 005 days, and an inclination of 15.5 degrees. Melusina is a carbonaceous asteroid. Melusina was discovered by the French astronomer Auguste Honoré Pierre Charlois at the Nice Observatory (Observatoire de Nice) in southeastern France near the border with Italy.

Melusina is named after a female character from medieval folktales. Her name varies little. Merlusigne is one variant, Mélusine is the most common variant. Mélusine is half human and half snake, but appears to be completely human. The storytellers usually call her a water fairy. She marries a knight, who has to promise her that he’s never going to see her nude. He once, after he kept his promise since several years, is married to Mélusine, and she already gave birth to some children, becomes too curious and watches Mélusine bathing. This triggers a curse and Mélusine’s lower body turns into the body of a snake and she grows wings and flies away. She only sometimes returns secretly at night to see her children, in variants of the folktale only while these children still need to be breastfed.

This folktale was understood as not just an entertaining story, but also as part of the genealogy of the French House of Lusignan, to which some kings of Jerusalem and kings of Cyprus belonged. So the folktale of Mélusine could be an adoption of Arab folktales or of some Greek mythology. Psyche and Eros could have been a role model because Psyche was prohibited to see the face of Eros, but risked a look, while he was asleep. Even the Japanese mythological tale about Toyotama-hime no mikoto (豊玉姫命) is similar. Toyotama-hime no mikoto (豊玉姫命) is a daughter of the god of the sea. She gets married to a fisherman, who is prohibited to be present, when she gives birth to their child. But the fisherman risks a look and sees that Toyotama-hime no mikoto (豊玉姫命) had turned into a dragon for giving birth because the dragon is her true nature. She immediately leaves her husband forever and her child gets raised by her sister. Toyotama-hime no mikoto (豊玉姫命) in a variant of the tale is a crocodile and Mélusine in variants of the folktale is from the waist down either a serpent, a fish, or a dragon. The folktale changed during the years. Mélusine is a mythological ancestor of the House of Lusignan, but other families (most prominently the Counts of Luxembourg) adopted the story until in the Late Middle Age a supernatural being as an ancestor was intolerable. The folktale got adapted and turned into stories about christian virtues and christening. In later centuries, Mélusine inspired stories about tragic love.

Although when Mélusine as the origin of the name of Melusina is clear, then still remains unclear which variant from which century is meant. Mélusine and women strongly reminding at her had been the mythological origins of some noble families. But then, during the centuries, a non-christian story of origin was impossible for a christian noble family. So the folktales had to be adapted. So Melusina represents persons, whose biography gets altered by other people and especially if this is for religious reasons.