Echo


Asteroid 60, Echo, was discovered on September 14, 1860 by James Ferguson in Washington. It has a period of 3 years, 256 days and is 60.2 kilometers (slightly less than 37 2/5 miles) in diameter.

Echo was named for a nymph who, according to Ovid, helped Zeus for a while by engaging Hera in long conversations while Zeus held trysts with other nymphs. When Hera discovered this, she condemned Echo to be able to speak only by repeating the words of others. She fell in love with Narcissus, an attractive young man who rejected her and every other woman because he could only love himself, as he discovered one day when he saw his own reflection in a pool of water, couldn't tear his eyes away from it, and wasted away for love of it. and was changed into the flower known as the narcissus. Echo also wasted away, for love of Narcissus, and disappeared, leaving behind only her voice.

Echo and Narcissus, (1903) a painting by English artist John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)


Another version of the story has Echo as an aloof woman who rejected men one time too many: the god Pan, who she turned down, had her torn to pieces and the pieces scattered far and wide, and Gaea, goddess of the earth, kept her voice, with its quality of repetition, alive.

Astrologically, asteroid Echo seems to indicate to stand by (Damien Foor); on standby, to echo, to be talkative, gossiping, reverberance, reflexively or mindlessly following or concurring (being a "dittohead"), to gang up on; possibly, being repetitive, things that exploit the phenomenon of echoing such as sonar and radar, resonant..



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