Ancient Greek Star Lore Part 6

Orion The constellation Orion is named after the hunter Orion in Greek mythology. There are a number of variations to the saga. Most likely, the legend was first told by Hesiod at around 700 BC. The third century BC scholar Eratosthenes gives a fairly long summary of Hesiod's story in his work on the constellations. Wikipedia describes Hesiod's version as follows: Orion was likely the son of the sea-god Poseidon and Euryale, daughter of Minos, King of Crete. Orion could walk on the waves because of his father; he walked to the island of Chios where he got drunk and attacked Merope, daughter of Oenopion, the ruler there. In vengeance, Oenopion blinded Orion and drove him away. Orion stumbled to Lemnos where Hephaestus — the lame smith-god — had his forge. Hephaestus told his servant, Cedalion, to guide Orion to the uttermost East where Helios, the Sun, healed him; Orion carried Cedalion around on his shoulders. Orion returned to Chios to punish Oenopion, but the king hid away underground and escaped Orion's wrath. Orion's next journey took him to Crete where he hunted with the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto, and in the course of the hunt, threatened to kill every beast on Earth. Gaia, Mother Earth objected and sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. The creature succeeded. After his death, the goddesses asked Zeus to place Orion among the constellations. Zeus consented and, as a memorial to the hero's death, added the Scorpion to the heavens as well. (End of Wikipedia Quote)

Orion in "The Geography of the Heavens" Elijah Hinsdale Burritt, 1835 Source: Atlas Coelestis Orion in "Uranographia" Joannes Hevelius, 1690 Source: Atlas Coelestis

Some versions refer to the location of Orion and Scorpion on opposite sides of the sky as Zeus making sure that the Scorpion can never hurt Orion again; others refer to the same positioning as Orion still running away from the Scorpion.

Links to other versions of the story in Greek Mythology

Wikipedia - other Variants of the myth Astrobites - The story of Orion and Scorpion Norm McCarter - Orion, the great hunter Comfy Chair - Orion, the hunter Myth Encyclopedia - Orion Chandra Observatory - Orion: The story behind the name

Ian Ridpath - Orion Astronomy Rewind - The story of Orion and Scorpion Globe at Night - The Mythology of Orion Greek Mythology Star Myths - Orion Stellar Journeys - The Legend of Orion

Pisces The Greek myth of the fishes goes back to the end of the Gigantomachy, the decisive battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. In a last attempt to defeat the Olympians, Gaia, Mother Earth and mother of the Giants went to the lowest region of the Underworld where Zeus had imprisoned the Titans, coupled with Tartarus and gave birth to Typhon. Ian Ridpath tells us that Typhon was : "... the most awful monster the world had ever seen. According to Hesiod in the Theogony, Typhon had a hundred dragon’s heads from which black tongues flicked out. Fire blazed from the eyes in each of these heads, and from them came a cacophony of sound: sometimes ethereal voices which only the gods could understand, while at other times Typhon bellowed like a bull, roared like a lion, yelped like puppies, or hissed like a nest of snakes. Gaia sent this fearsome monster to attack the gods. Pan saw him coming and alerted the others with a shout. Pan himself jumped into the river and changed his form into a goat-fish, represented by the constellation Capricornus. The goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros took cover among the reeds on the banks of the Euphrates, but when the wind rustled the undergrowth Aphrodite became fearful. Holding Eros in her lap she called for help to the water nymphs and leapt into the river. In one version of the story, two fish swam up and carried Aphrodite and Eros to safety on their backs...

Zeus and Typhon, ca. 540 BC, State Collections of Antiquities, Munich Source: Wikipedia Pisces in Urania's Mirror Source: Wikipedia

In another version, the two refugees were themselves changed into fish. The mythologists said that because of this story the Syrians would not eat fish, regarding them as gods or the protectors of gods." In an alternative story in the Fabulae, Hyginus picks up on the Mesopotamian story of the Syrian goddess. Ian Ridpath writes that "... an egg fell into the Euphrates and was rolled to the shore by two fish. Doves sat on the egg and from it hatched Aphrodite who, in gratitude, put the fish in the sky. Eratosthenes had yet another explanation: he wrote that the two fish represented by Pisces were offspring of the much larger fish that is represented by the constellation Piscis Austrinus. When the goddess Derceto fell into a lake near Bambyce in northern Syria, she was rescued by the large fish; she placed this fish and its two youngsters in the sky as Piscis Austrinus and Pisces, respectively." Source: Ian Ridpath, Wikipedia, underluckystars.com

Pisces in Poeticon Astronomicon Source: fineartamerica.com

Another legend, unrelated to all the stories above uses the fishes as a symbol for Dictys, the brave and kind fisherman who recused princess Danaë and her infant son Perseus, after Danaë's father, king Acrisius of Argos abandoned them at sea in a wooden box. The story links the constellation Pisces to its celestial neighbors Perseus and Andromeda. Sources: Wikipedia, crowbarmassage.com X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Dictys rescues Danaë and Perseus; Source: pinterest.fr

Pleiades In Greek mythology the Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione. The seven sisters are Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Asterope and Merope. There is a wealth of myths about the seven sisters. Many of them can be found using the Wikipedia links at their names above. The Pleiades are mentioned in Hesiod's Works and Days and in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. Many of the tales told in Greek mythology are about prominent Gods trying to engage in affairs with the seven sisters. In total, these adventures resulted in thirteen children, among them famous Gods like Hermes who was the only son of Maia, the oldest of the sisters, fathered by Zeus. Also involved with the Pleiades were the Olympians Poseidon and Ares and the Titan Prometheus. Aside from the affairs with the Gods, some of the Sisters were married to mortals. Electra was the wife of the Italian King Corythus. She is sometime referred to as the lost Pleiad, disappearing in grief after the destruction of Troy. Merope, the youngest of the sisters was married to Sisyphus. She was said to become mortal and faded away. There are two versions of how the sisters became stars. Both are linked to the end of the Titanomachy, the ten-years ware betwenn Olympiand and Titans. After his defeat, the Titan Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders. In one version, all seven sisters committed suicide because they were so saddened by the fate of their father, Atlas. In turn Zeus, the ruler of the Olympians, immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky. In another version, after Atlas was forced to carry the heavens, the great hunter Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars to comfort their father. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky. Source: Wikipedia The star cluster of the Pleiades is part of the constellation Taurus, but given the amount of Star Lore related to them, they deserve a separate entry.

The Pleiades in a painting by Elihu Vedder, 1885 Source: Wikipedia Pleiades in the Leiden Arathea, 816 AD Source: Wikimedia The Pleiades © Dorling Kindersley

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