Orion (mythology)

Orion [oˈʀiːɔn] (Greek Ὠρίων) is a giant hunter of Greek mythology, set among the stars.

A huge and strong hunter, he lived in Boeotia and Crete. When hunting he was accompanied by his hunting dogs Sirius and Procyon, which also surround his constellation in the sky (see below). The statements about his origin are contradictory: sometimes he is the son of Poseidon and Euryale (not to be confused with the gorgon Euryale), sometimes he has three fathers at once, namely Poseidon, Zeus and a third (Hermes or Ares). All three mixed their seed in a bag of bull's skin. From Zeus, therefore, he has his taste for erotic adventures, and Poseidon bequeathed him the ability to walk on water.

His wife Side was cast down into Tartarus by Hera for boasting too much of her beauty.

According to the legend of Oinopion, a son of the wine god Dionysus, his daughter Merope fell in love with Orion, but Oinopion did not consent to the marriage. In rage, Orion raped her, for which her father gouged out his eyes after getting him drunk on wine. Hephaestus enabled Eos, the goddess of dawn, to restore Orion's sight by sending him the blacksmith Cedalion to lead him to the sunrise. Orion vowed to take revenge on Oinopion, but Hephaestus helped Oinopion and hid him underground so Orion could not find him. Instead, he settled on the island of Delos for Eos' sake. Eos fell in love with him, whereupon he is killed with arrows by Artemis out of jealousy. Later, out of remorse, Artemis moves the hunter Orion to the sky as a constellation, where he still stalks the beautiful Pleiades today - the Pleiades rise and set as a Pleiades just before Orion.

Another story sees Orion as an overzealous hunter who wanted to kill all the wild animals of the earth's circle. Gaia (the earth itself), Artemis or even Hera then brought forth a scorpion that killed Orion with a sting. The healer Asclepius tried in vain to save him. As a result, Orion and the scorpion were placed in the sky as constellations, where they still hunt each other. (Orion's constellation is seen in the winter months, Scorpio's in the summertime, but both at the same time almost never). Asclepius was also immortalized in the night sky as the constellation Serpent Bearer. For other variants on Orion's death, see Artemis.

Another legend gives Orion as the son of a nymph belonging to Artemis, who as companions of the virgin goddess of the hunt also had to remain virginal. But that doesn't work when Zeus, the father of the gods, has his eye on a female. When the pregnancy became obvious, the goddess of the hunt turned her nymph into a bear. She gave birth to Orion in human form, who was raised in a family of shepherds. Orion grew up to be a great hunter. Once, while hunting, a she-bear ran into him without recognizing his mother. The bear stood up on her hind paws and spread out her front paws to embrace her son. He took this as an attack and shot the bear. Because of this mother-son tragedy, both the Great Bear and Orion were moved to the sky.

Among the Teutons, the constellation was called "The Three Hunters".

Orion as a constellation. Illustration from Johann Bayer's Uranometria, 1603Zoom
Orion as a constellation. Illustration from Johann Bayer's Uranometria, 1603


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