Chiron was given the name Chiron because the asteroid (#2060) had not only the features of an asteroid, but also features of a comet. Echeclus shares this features. Echeclus is hence known as Echeclus or 2000 EC98 or asteroid #60558 or 174P/Echeclus. The latter is his comet designation and he is a quite fast short-periodic comet. Echeclus was the second comet (after Chiron), that received an asteroid designation and a mythological name instead of being named after the discoverer as it would be usual for a comet. There are currently six more celestial objects, which are counted as comets and as asteroids as well. Half of them are named:

• Wilson-Harrington (#4015 or 107P/Wilson-Harrington)
• Elst-Pizarro (#7968 or 133P/Elst-Pizarro)
• LINEAR (#118401 or 176P/LINEAR)

29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has a good chance to be added to the list too. 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann is also known as Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 and has a very short orbital period of less than fifteen years. Hence it is very likely a centaur, but it is as unlikely that the name will be changed. So this is very likely an astrologically irrelevant centaur. LINEAR is named after the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research telescope, that discovered this centaur, that has 1999 RE70 as an asteroid designation. LINEAR is additionally to a short-periodic comet and a centaur asteroid also a Main Belt Asteroid of the Themis-family.

But back to Echeclus. He was observed when he lost a chunk in 2005, although some researchers believe that Echeclus was only emitting volatile substance trying to show his coma. His comet coma was observed in 2011 and in 2017, so Echeclus is a still quite active comet. Echeclus is emitting carbon-monoxide, but less than other comets do.

Like it is usual for Centaurs, not much is known about the mythological Echeclus. He was beaten to death with a broken lance. The part without the blade was used, so others describe the weapon as a simple stick or staff. That’s it.

Echeclus’ tale is such a stub that there can hardly be derived any astrological relevance or meaning from it. Also important for astrological meanings is why a celestial body is named as it is, what are its astronomical peculiarities, what is the meaning of the name, and most importantly what happened while it was discovered. Echeclus is astronomically an almost perfect centaur asteroid and nothing is known about the other factors. Echeclus’ merit is for me to guide attention to this difficulty. Echeclus could mean, subject to further research, to praise the day before the evening. There is a perfect centaur and the meaning still not obvious. There is a Centaur in mythology, who could have been happy to have escaped the blade of a lance, and is then killed with the remaining staff.