The
myths associated with Scorpio almost invariably also contain
a reference to Orion, a Greek giant who was a hunter and the
most handsome man in the world. By no means impervious to the
charms of females, Orion was said to have such an enormous stature
that he could walk on the bottom of the sea without getting
his head wet. One such tale involves Eos, Goddess of Dawn and
an inveterate collector of handsome young men. She invited him
to spend the night with her and he happily accepted but later
bragged of the conquest and also boasted that he was such a
magnificent hunter, that he would exterminate all of the wild
beasts of the Earth. Apollo...God of the Sun, who was responsible
for guarding herds...persuaded Gaiaa, the Earth Goddess (or
possibly Hera), to send a giant scorpion with impenetrable armor
to sting Orion until the hunter was dead.
Some
variations state that the scorpion succeeded, while others maintain
that Orion tried to escape by swimming out to sea, only to be
shot by Artemis...Goddess of the Moon and Apollo's twin sister.
Finding herself attracted to Orion, Artemis had fired her arrow
in an attempt to kill the scorpion who was pursing the hunter.
Being a magnificent shot, the Goddess struck the black head
she saw bobbing in the water. Tragically, however, her target
proved to be Orion instead of the scorpion and the hunter died
instantly. Later, the grief-stricken Artemis placed Orion as
a constellation among the stars, where he is eternally tracked
by the giant scorpion. Although Orion and the scorpion appear
together in this myth, the constellation of Orion is almost
opposite to the constellation of Scorpio in the night sky...and
it has been suggested that this was a divine precaution to forestall
any heavenly continuation of the feud.
In
a Greek fable, it is written that Orion boasted to Artemis and
her mother, Leto...Goddess of Light...that he would kill every
animal on the earth. Although Artemis was known to be a hunter
herself, her divinity still offered protection to all creatures.
Thus, Artemis and Leto sent a a poisonous reptile...a scorpion...to
deal with Orion. The pair battled and the contest was apparently
a lively one that caught the attention of Zeus, who later raised
the scorpion to heaven and afterwards, at the request of Artemis,
did the same for Orion...to serve as a reminder for mortals
to curb their excessive pride. Yet another myth associated with
this constellation tells that Orion had pursued one or all of
the Pleides and Artemis sent the scorpion to kill him for his
attempts to violate these women.
Of
course, the Pleides were not known for their purity or innocence
in terms of physical encounters so quite why the Goddess might
want to protect their long-lost virtue remains something of
a mystery. Another legend states that it was Apollo who sent
the scorpion to kill Orion because the God had become jealous
of Artemis' attentions to the hunter. Later, in contrition for
killing Orion, Apollo helped Artemis hang Orion's image in the
night sky. However, the scorpion was also placed there and every
time it appears on the horizon, Orion starts to sink into the
other side of the sky, still running from his attacker.
