Asteroid 31824, a Centaur called Elatus, was discovered October 29, 1999 by the Catalina Sky Survey at Tucson, Arizona. It has a period of 45 years, 252 days.
Elatus was named for a centaur who was killed in the battle with Hercules that also resulted in the deaths of Chiron, Pholus and Asbolus. Elatus was killed by a poisoned arrow that passed through his arm and continued on past him to hit Chiron in the knee. Elatus' name means "fir man," perhaps because he used to pull up whole fir trees and use them as weapons.
Astrologically, Elatus seems to indicate expression, expressiveness, eloquence, to mislead, to deceive (possibly oneself); possibly "dodging a bullet."
Strom Thurmond had Elatus square Rhadamanthus (to judge) and Okyrhoe (to be criticized, to brush aside criticism, to be able to listen to oneself), trine Dioretsa (unable to beat the rap for something, misguided behavior), and opposite Neptune (ideals; denial; delusion).
Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart, who had the plug pulled on his lucrative TV ministry and his tirades against sexual immorality when he was discovered to have patronized prostitutes in cheap New Orleans motels, has Elatus sextile the Ascendant (personal interests), square the Moon (the public) and the Nodes (connections), trine Juno (giving away power, relationships), biquintile the Sun and Chiron, triseptile Pallas (politics), and opposite Uranus (activism, broadcasting).
George W. Bush, an inarticulate but well-advised man, has Elatus conjunct the Vertex (significant relationships) and trine the Midheaven (career, reputation).
Billie Sol Estes
Frank Abagnale
Ivan Boesky
1980s Wall Street crook Ivan Boesky, who helped popularize the pithy phrase "Greed is good," considered a hallmark of that decade's zeitgeist, had Elatus sesquiquadrate Saturn (work, career, consequences, imprisonment) and opposite Pandora (stirring things up, making a splash).
Charles Ponzi
Charles Ponzi, who invented the Ponzi scheme and sold people worthless Florida swampland and other investments, living the high life until he was deported back to his native Italy, had Elatus sextile Ixion (invention, lust for life, bad karma) and square Thersander (getting what you deserve).
Kevin Eugene McAfee (born August 6, 1960), of Chesterfield, Illinois, is an admitted zoophile who was caught sexually molesting female horses in his rural area north of St. Louis and is believed to have been doing this secretly for over 20 years. McAfee has Elatus conjunct Veteraniya (extensive experience, savvy) and Mercury (agility, cunning), semisextile 2000 EC98 (not well grounded) and Venus(love, values), sextile Okyrhoe (dealing with criticism), biquintile 1996 TL66 (to try and bring something to an end, to impose one's will destructively), and quincunx Jupiter (the law).
When the famous Hollywood sign on Mount Lee in Los Angeles was erected on July 13, 1923, Elatus was sextile Jupiter (prosperity, welcoming) and trine Pallas (conceptualization).
When the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston caught fire at about 10:10 on the night of November 28, 1942, almost 500 people died. The place was an overcrowded firetrap chock-full of numerous safety and labor and not because the people who operated it and the people responsible for overseeing its operation didn't know any better, either. The owner had influence with corrupt politicians who granted him favors, including cursory and sloppy fire inspections. Elatus was in the fourth house of the fire chart, conjunct Kaali (death and destruction) ; semisextile Fisher (looking for something--a cause or causes, a missing person, someone to blame), Flammario (fires), Sophia (rejected ideas), Toro (to contend with something); sextile Neptune, Achilles (stupid self-deception; altruism rashly expressed), and 1998 BU48 (the political situation which fostered the conditions for the fire; the owner pushing his luck a little too long); trine Don Quixote and Pia (acting in defiance of reality and/or with heroism) ;quincunx Memnon (under scrutiny, hope for something good to come out of the business) SURF (laxness), and Nessus (criminal behavior); and opposite Uranus (sudden, drastic and shocking; agitating for reform).
At 4:07 p.m. on May 31, 1889, a wall of water hit Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in one of the country's worst floods, devastating the city, killing thousands, including 400 children under age 10, wiping out almost a hundred entire families. The flood was caused by the rupture of a poorly maintained dam on the property of a country club which counted some the nation's wealthiest and most powerful men among its members. They never paid any legal penalty for their criminal negligence despite popular outrage and efforts to have them prosecuted. At the time of the flood, Elatus was conjunct 1999 TD10 (barriers coming down, invasion by destructive forces), sextile Chariklo (glamor) and Thersites (to protest or rail against), and sesquiquadrate Vesta (dedication).
Cesare Borgia, who was Niccolo Machiavelli's model for The Prince, had Elatus trine the Moon (the public) and square Thereus (savagery, working with others).
The glyph for Elatus was developed by Zane Stein and is based on its provisional designation, 1999 UG5.