In the mythology of the sky, constellations don’t have to be close together to be related. Orion and Scorpius, for example, are on opposite sides of the sky. Yet they share a common basic story, although with some variations on the details.
Orion was a great hunter. But in more than one version of the story, he took the “great” part a little too far. In one version, he boasted that he would kill every animal on Earth. But that didn’t please Gaia, a goddess who was the mother of all life. She sent the scorpion to sting Orion to death.
In another version of the story, Orion was hunting the Pleiades – the Seven Sisters. That angered the goddess Artemis, who also called on the scorpion.
In some tellings, the scorpion accomplished its goal. In others, Orion survived. In all of them, the hunter and the scorpion were placed in the stars, but on opposite sides of the sky, with one setting as the other is rising. Orion is eternally trying to hunt down the scorpion – or escape its mortal sting.
Orion rules the winter sky. It’s in the east and southeast at nightfall, and climbs high across the sky during the night. It’s a rectangle of bright stars with a short line of three stars at its middle – Orion’s Belt. Scorpius is starting to climb into the dawn sky. In fact, its brightest star stands well to the lower left of the Moon early tomorrow. The scorpion will take its turn in the evening sky during the long nights of summer.
Script by Damond Benningfield