Scorpius represents death, darkness, and everything that we look on as evil.
Orion Boasted that so great was his might and skill as a hunter that he could kill all the animals on the face of the Earth. Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate statement. Gaea decided that Orion must be killed just in case he might one day decide to carry out his boast. So Gaea sent a giant scorpion to Orion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As mighty as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel (at the star Rigel). Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in the sky, but they were placed at opposite ends of the great sky dome so that they would never engage in battle again. Although there are other storied about how Orion met his death, this one is the most common.
In New Zealand, the constellation is not seen as a scorpion, but as a heavenly fish hook.
The Romans at one time called Scorpius "the Lurking One."
The Chinese looked on Antares as a star to be worshipped as a safeguard against fire. They named the star Huo Shing, meaning "the Fire Star."
The farther south one travels until reaching the middle latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, the higher the Scorpion rises above the southern horizon. In doing so, it seems that the Scorpion also loses its image of being an evil creature. From the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, comes the myth of Dümur. The mother of all the stars is Ligedaner (Capella, in Auriga). Her oldest son is Dümur (Antares) and her youngest is Pleiades. Her sons came down from the vault of Heaven to visit their mother, who lived on the atoll Alinablab. While they were there, they suggested that he who was the first to reach a certain island somewhere in the East should be proclaimed King of the Stars.
As mentioned regarding Orion, Gaia may have sent the scorpion to kill the mighty hunter, as he had vowed to rid the earth of all wild animals. Or Apollo might have told Gaia of Orion's boast, fearful that Orion had designs on Apollo's sister Artemis.
In any case it was Gaia who sent the scorpion to kill Orion. Later the animal would chase Orion across the heavens, but it could never catch him, for the scorpion was so placed that it would rise in the east only after Orion had safely disappeared over the western horizon.
is one of the oldest constellations known - possibly even one of the original six signs of the zodiac. While the sun still traverses Scorpius, it only takes nine days to do so; most of the time is spent in neighbouring Ophiuchus (which is the only constellation that the sun enters but which is not a part of the zodiac).
The asterism of a gigantic skewed "S" was seen in many ancient cultures as a scorpion, possibly handed down by cultural conquest or influence. The two stars lambda and upsilon, both called "The Sting" in Arabic, traditionally form the stinger, although some star maps currently show the nearby "G Scorpii" as one of the stingers. We have recently changed our graphic to reflect the original stingers.
The constellation was once much larger, but the western portion representing the claws of the scorpion was given to Libra.
Orion Boasted that so great was his might and skill as a hunter that he could kill all the animals on the face of the Earth. Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate statement. Gaea decided that Orion must be killed just in case he might one day decide to carry out his boast. So Gaea sent a giant scorpion to Orion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As mighty as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel (at the star Rigel). Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in the sky, but they were placed at opposite ends of the great sky dome so that they would never engage in battle again. Although there are other storied about how Orion met his death, this one is the most common.
In New Zealand, the constellation is not seen as a scorpion, but as a heavenly fish hook.
The Romans at one time called Scorpius "the Lurking One."
The Chinese looked on Antares as a star to be worshipped as a safeguard against fire. They named the star Huo Shing, meaning "the Fire Star."
The farther south one travels until reaching the middle latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, the higher the Scorpion rises above the southern horizon. In doing so, it seems that the Scorpion also loses its image of being an evil creature. From the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, comes the myth of Dümur. The mother of all the stars is Ligedaner (Capella, in Auriga). Her oldest son is Dümur (Antares) and her youngest is Pleiades. Her sons came down from the vault of Heaven to visit their mother, who lived on the atoll Alinablab. While they were there, they suggested that he who was the first to reach a certain island somewhere in the East should be proclaimed King of the Stars.
As mentioned regarding Orion, Gaia may have sent the scorpion to kill the mighty hunter, as he had vowed to rid the earth of all wild animals. Or Apollo might have told Gaia of Orion's boast, fearful that Orion had designs on Apollo's sister Artemis.
In any case it was Gaia who sent the scorpion to kill Orion. Later the animal would chase Orion across the heavens, but it could never catch him, for the scorpion was so placed that it would rise in the east only after Orion had safely disappeared over the western horizon.
is one of the oldest constellations known - possibly even one of the original six signs of the zodiac. While the sun still traverses Scorpius, it only takes nine days to do so; most of the time is spent in neighbouring Ophiuchus (which is the only constellation that the sun enters but which is not a part of the zodiac).
The asterism of a gigantic skewed "S" was seen in many ancient cultures as a scorpion, possibly handed down by cultural conquest or influence. The two stars lambda and upsilon, both called "The Sting" in Arabic, traditionally form the stinger, although some star maps currently show the nearby "G Scorpii" as one of the stingers. We have recently changed our graphic to reflect the original stingers.
The constellation was once much larger, but the western portion representing the claws of the scorpion was given to Libra.
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