Orion is a Greek mythological figure and a constellation visible in the winter sky. There are various myths about Orion’s origins and death, but he is often depicted as a hunter with a mace, shield, and sword. The constellation includes bright stars such as Rigel, Betelgeuse, and Bellatrix.
Orion is both a figure from Greek mythology and an easily visible constellation in the winter sky. As a constellation, Orion is a hunter, with his mace, shield and sword at the ready.
There are a number of variant myths referencing Orion and they cannot all be seamlessly connected. Following a path, he is the son of the god Poseidon and the Gorgon Euryale, with the power to walk on the surface of the sea. He was engaged to Merope, but blinded by her father for consummating their union before the wedding ceremony. Finally healed by Helios, the sun god, Orion traveled to Crete, where he met the goddess of the hunt, Artemis.
Because Orion gave Artemis her due, they happily hunted together for a while. From this point the story diverges. Either Orion threatened to kill every creature and Mother Earth, not being happy with this outcome, sent a Scorpion to kill him or Apollo became jealous of his sister’s pleasure in this mortal’s company and tricked her into shoot him.
How it became a constellation is a little more certain. Orion’s placement in the sky is partly explained by a myth relating to his death. It appears that Orion was killed by a Scorpion and that Aesculapius, a physician who had never lost a patient, tried to revive him. Hades, concerned that if the people were continually revived they would have no one to rule over, brought in Zeus, rather heavily, with a thunderbolt, killing the doctor. For his merits, however, Aesculapius was transformed into a constellation, together with Scorpio. But to avoid trouble in the skies, they were placed as far away from Orion as possible so that Orion and Scorpio would never meet again.
Another myth of Orion from the works and days of Hesiod tells it differently. He says that Orion is immortalized in the sky chasing the Pleiades, seven sisters who appear as stars on the shoulder of Taurus, and that Canis Major and Canis Minor are his hunting dogs.
The constellation Orion has several very bright stars that are among the best recognized in the sky. Rigel, a blue-white supergiant 40,000-50,000 times more luminous than the sun, forms Orion’s right foot, and Rigel, in fact, means “foot” in Arabic. Betelgeuse, a name derived from a series of academic errors, is the red supergiant that forms one of Orion’s shoulders. It is about 13,000 times brighter than the sun and its diameter is also about 500 times larger. Bellatrix, a name perhaps better known from the Harry Potter books than from astronomical studies, is the star that forms Orion’s other shoulder. It is a bluish-white giant and also one of the most prominent stars in the night sky.
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