CASPER
New member
If you look about due south around 9 p.m. your local time this week, you may see a familiar sight dominating our winter skies: the Great Hunter or Celestial Warrior, Orion, the most brilliant of the constellations and visible from every inhabited part of the Earth.
This Orion constellation sky map shows what the famed star pattern will look like in the winter skies of the Northern Hemisphere, weather permitting.
As is also the case with the mighty Hercules, the figure of Orion has been associated in virtually all ancient cultures with great national heroes, warriors or demigods. Yet, in contrast to Hercules, who was credited with a detailed series of exploits, Orion seems to us a vague and shadowy figure.
Who was Orion?
The ancient mythological stories of Orion are so many and so confused that it is almost impossible to choose among them.
Probably the best known is the one where he got into trouble for bragging that no game could ever escape him. This annoyed the goddess Hera, who sent a poisonous scorpion (Scorpius) to sting his heel, and Orion subsequently died.
Orion, however, was brought back to life by the great physician, Aesculapius who got his medical secrets from the snakes. But the god Hades, King of the Dead, heard about this miraculous deed and became concerned about the future of his kingdom.
So he asked Zeus to intervene, and Zeus threw thunderbolts and liquidated both Orion and Aesculapius. As a precaution, Orion and the Scorpion were placed in opposite parts of the sky so they could never get into further trouble.
Even the origin of the name Orion is obscure, though some scholars have suggested a connection with the Greek "Arion," meaning simply warrior.
All, however, agree that Orion was the mightiest hunter in the world at his time and he is always pictured in the stars with his club upraised in his right hand. Hanging from his upraised left hand is the skin of a great lion he has killed and which he is brandishing in the face of Taurus, the Bull, who is charging down upon him.
This Orion constellation sky map shows what the famed star pattern will look like in the winter skies of the Northern Hemisphere, weather permitting.
As is also the case with the mighty Hercules, the figure of Orion has been associated in virtually all ancient cultures with great national heroes, warriors or demigods. Yet, in contrast to Hercules, who was credited with a detailed series of exploits, Orion seems to us a vague and shadowy figure.
Who was Orion?
The ancient mythological stories of Orion are so many and so confused that it is almost impossible to choose among them.
Probably the best known is the one where he got into trouble for bragging that no game could ever escape him. This annoyed the goddess Hera, who sent a poisonous scorpion (Scorpius) to sting his heel, and Orion subsequently died.
Orion, however, was brought back to life by the great physician, Aesculapius who got his medical secrets from the snakes. But the god Hades, King of the Dead, heard about this miraculous deed and became concerned about the future of his kingdom.
So he asked Zeus to intervene, and Zeus threw thunderbolts and liquidated both Orion and Aesculapius. As a precaution, Orion and the Scorpion were placed in opposite parts of the sky so they could never get into further trouble.
Even the origin of the name Orion is obscure, though some scholars have suggested a connection with the Greek "Arion," meaning simply warrior.
All, however, agree that Orion was the mightiest hunter in the world at his time and he is always pictured in the stars with his club upraised in his right hand. Hanging from his upraised left hand is the skin of a great lion he has killed and which he is brandishing in the face of Taurus, the Bull, who is charging down upon him.
