Orion (mythology)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orion as a constellation . Illustration from Johann Bayer's Uranometria , 1603

Orion [ oˈʀiːɔn ] ( Greek  Ὠρίων ) is a gigantic hunter of Greek mythology who has been placed under the stars .

A huge and powerful hunter , he lived in Boeotia and Crete . During the hunt he was accompanied by his hunting dogs Sirius and Procyon , who also surround his constellation in the sky (see below). His origins are contradictory: sometimes he is the son of Poseidon and Euryale (not to be confused with the Gorgon Euryale ), sometimes he has three fathers, namely Poseidon, Zeus and a third ( Hermes or Ares ). All three mixed their semen in a bag made of bull skin. From Zeus, he got his love for erotic adventures, and Poseidon bequeathed him the ability to walk on water.

His wife Side was pushed down into the Tartaros by Hera because she boasted too much of her beauty.

According to the legend about Oinopion , a son of the "wine god" Dionysus , his daughter Merope fell in love with Orion, but Oinopion did not consent to the marriage. Orion raped her in anger, for which her father poked his eyes out after making him drunk with wine. Hephaestus made it possible for Eos , the goddess of the dawn , to restore Orion's sight by sending him the blacksmith Cedalion to guide him to the sunrise. Orion swore 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 the sake of Eos . Eos fell in love with him, whereupon Artemis killed him with arrows out of jealousy . Later, out of remorse, Artemis transfers the hunter Orion to the sky as a constellation , where he still recreates the beautiful Pleiades today - the Pleiades rise and set as seven stars shortly before Orion.

Another story sees Orion as an overzealous hunter who wanted to kill all the wild animals in the world. Gaia (the earth itself), Artemis or Hera then produced a scorpion that killed Orion with a sting. The healer Asklepios tried in vain to save him. As a result, Orion and Scorpio were transferred to the sky as constellations, where they are still chasing each other. ( Orion's constellation can be seen in the winter months, that of Scorpio in summer, but both are almost never seen at the same time.) Asclepius was also immortalized in the night sky as the constellation serpentine . For other versions of his death, see Artemis .

Another legend says Orion was the son of one of Artemis' nymphs who, as companions of the virgin goddess of the hunt, also had to remain virgins. But that doesn't work if Zeus, the father of the gods, has his eye on a female being. When pregnancy became apparent, the goddess of the hunt turned her nymph into a she-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 he ran into a bear while hunting without him recognizing his mother. The bear stood up on her hind paws and spread her front paws to embrace her son. He understood this as an attack and shot the bear. Because of this mother and son tragedy, both Great Bear and Orion were lifted to the sky.

The Germanic people called the constellation "The Three Hunters".

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Homer : Iliad 18,486.
  2. ↑ Aristomachus in Eratosthenes : Katasterismoi 32,164.
  3. ↑ Hyginus Mythographus : Fabulae 2,34.
  4. ↑ Pherecytes of Athens in the library of Apollodorus 1,4,3.
  5. ↑ Maurus Servius Honoratius : Commentary on Aeneid 1,535.
  6. ↑ Ovid : Feasts 5,537.
  7. ↑ Scholion , Nikandros from Colophon : Theriaca 15.

Web links

Commons : Orion  - collection of images, videos and audio files