An engraving of Orion from Johann Bayer's Uranometria, 1603 (US Naval Observatory Library)

Orion (Greek Ωρίων or Ὠαρίων, Latin Orion)^[1] was a giant huntsman of Greek mythology who was placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Download high resolution version (2550x3548, 1334 KB)A print of the copperplate engraving for Johann Bayers Uranometria showing the constellation Orion. ... Download high resolution version (2550x3548, 1334 KB)A print of the copperplate engraving for Johann Bayers Uranometria showing the constellation Orion. ... Johann Bayer (1572 – March 7, 1625) was a German astronomer. ... Uranometrias engraving of the constellation Orion, courtesy of the US Naval Observatory Library Uranometria is the short title of a star atlas produced by Johann Bayer. ... Aerial view of USNO. The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States. ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... Orion (IPA: ), a constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation, one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous in the sky[1]. Its brilliant stars are found on the celestial equator and are visible throughout the world, making this constellation globally recognized. ...

Ancient sources tell several different stories about Orion. There are two major versions of his birth and several versions of his death. The most important recorded episodes are his birth somewhere in Boeotia, his visit to Chios where he met Merope and was blinded by her father, Oenopion, the recovery of his sight at Lemnos, his hunting with Artemis on Crete, his death by the blow of Artemis or of the giant scorpion which became Scorpio, and his elevation to the heavens. Most ancient sources omit some of these episodes and several tell only one. These various incidents may originally have been independent, unrelated stories and it is impossible to tell whether omissions are simple brevity or represent a real disagreement. Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Chios (Greek: , alternative transliterations Khios and Hios), is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea seven kilometres (five miles) off the Turkish coast. ... In Greek mythology, several unrelated women went by the name Merope (bee-mask later reinterpreted as honey-like or eloquent), which may, therefore, have denoted a position in the cult of the Great Mother rather than a mere individuals name: Merope, one of the Heliades Merope, foster mother of... In Greek mythology, Oenopion (wine-faced), son of Dionysus and Ariadne, was a legendary king of Khios, said to have brought winemaking to the island. ... Lemnos (mod. ... For other uses, see Artemis (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... This article is about the constellation. ...

In Greek literature he first appears as a great hunter in Homer's epic the Odyssey, where Odysseus sees his shade in the underworld. The bare bones of his story are told by the Hellenistic and Roman collectors of myths, but there is no extant mythological record of his adventures comparable, for example, to that of Jason in Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica or Euripides' Medea. The remaining fragments of legend have provided a fertile field for speculation about Greek prehistory and myth. For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Beginning of the Odyssey For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... For other meanings, see Odysseus (disambiguation) Ulysses redirects here. ... For other uses, see Underworld (disambiguation). ... The term Hellenistic (derived from Héllēn, the Greeks traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture over the non-Greek people that were conquered by Alexander the Great. ... This article is about the hero from Greek mythology. ... Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius (Latin; Greek Apollōnios Rhodios), early 3rd century BC - after 246 BC, was an epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria. ... The Argonautica (Greek: ) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. ... A statue of Euripides. ... This article is about the Greek mythological figure. ...

Orion served several roles in ancient Greek culture. The story of the adventures of Orion, the hunter, is the one on which we have the most evidence (and even on that not very much); he is also the personification of the constellation of the same name; he was venerated as a hero, in the Greek sense, in the region of Boeotia; and there is one etiological passage which says that Orion was responsible for the present shape of the Straits of Sicily. The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ... Hero cult was one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. ... This article is about the medical term. ... Sicily ( in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ...

Legends

Homer and Hesiod

Orion is mentioned in the oldest surviving works of Greek literature, which probably date back to the 7th or 8th century BC. In Homer's Iliad Orion is described as a constellation, and the star Sirius is mentioned as his dog.^[2] In the Odyssey, Odysseus sees him hunting in the underworld with a bronze club, a great slayer of animals; he is also mentioned as a constellation, as the lover of the Goddess Dawn, as slain by Artemis, and as the most handsome of the earthborn.^[3] In the Works and Days of Hesiod, Orion is also a constellation, one whose rising and setting with the sun is used to reckon the year.^[4] For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... For other uses, see Sirius (disambiguation). ... Beginning of the Odyssey For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ... Eos, by Evelyn De Morgan (1850 - 1919), 1895 (Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC): for a Pre-Raphaelite painter, Eos was still the classical pagan equivalent of an angel Eos (dawn) was, in Greek Mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of... For other uses, see Artemis (disambiguation). ... The book Works and Days Works and Days (in ancient Greek , which sometimes goes by the Latin name Opera et Dies, as in the OCT) is a Greek poem of some 800 verses written by Hesiod (around 700 BC). ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived...

Daniel Seiter's 1685 painting of Diana over Orion's corpse, before he is placed in the heavens

The legend of Orion was first told in full in a lost work by Hesiod, probably the Astronomy; simple references to Hesiod will refer to this, unless otherwise stated. This version is known through the work of a Hellenistic author on the constellations; he gives a fairly long summary of Hesiod's discourse on Orion.^[5] According to this version, Orion was the son of the sea-god Poseidon and Euryale,^[6] 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,^[7] 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. Mother Earth objected and sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. The creature succeeded, and 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.^[8] Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... Front face of the MINOS far detector. ... Chios (Greek: , alternative transliterations Khios and Hios), is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea seven kilometres (five miles) off the Turkish coast. ... In Greek mythology, Oenopion (wine-faced), son of Dionysus and Ariadne, was a legendary king of Khios, said to have brought winemaking to the island. ... Lemnos (mod. ... Hephæstos (pronounced or ; Greek HÄ“phaistos) was the Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan; he was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and fire. ... In Greek mythology, Cedalion was a blacksmith who worked in the stables of Hephaestus. ... For other uses, see Helios (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Artemis (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Leto (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Gaia. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... This article is about the constellation. ...

Other sources

Although Orion has a few lines in both Homeric poems and in the Works and Days, most of the stories about him are recorded in incidental allusions and in fairly obscure later writings. No great poet standardized the legend.^[9] The ancient sources for Orion's legend are mostly notes in the margins of ancient poets (scholia) or compilations by later scholars, the equivalent of modern reference works or encyclopedias; even the legend from Hesiod's Astronomy survives only in one such compilation. In several cases, including the summary of the Astronomy, although the surviving work bears the name of a famous scholar, such as Apollodorus of Athens, Eratosthenes, or Gaius Julius Hyginus, what survives is either an ancient forgery or an abridgement of the original compilation by a later writer of dubious competence; editors of these texts suggest that they may have borne the names of great scholars because they were abridgments, or even pupil's notes, based on the works of the scholars.^[10] Scholium (tr~bXtoe), the name given to a grammatical, critical and explanatory note, extracted from existing commentaries and inserted on the margin of the manuscript of an ancient author. ... Apollodorus of Athens (born c. ... This article is about the Greek scholar of the third century BC. For the ancient Athenian statesman of the fifth century BC, see Eratosthenes (statesman). ... Gaius Julius Hyginus, (c. ...

The margin of the Empress Eudocia's copy of the Iliad has a note summarizing a Hellenistic poet^[11] who tells a different story of Orion's birth. Here the gods Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon come to visit Hyrieus of Tanagra, who roasts a whole bull for them.^[12] When they offer him a favor, he asks for the birth of sons. The gods take the bull's hide and ejaculate or urinate into it^[13] and bury it in the earth, then tell him to dig it up ten months^[14] later. When he does, he finds Orion. This explains why Orion is earthborn.^[15] Portrait of Aelia Eudocia on a tremissis. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ... In Greek mythology, Hyrieus was the father of Nycteus and Lycus. ... Tanagra (Greek: Τανάγρα) is a community north of Athens in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, that was noted in antiquity for its mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines. ...

A second full telling (even shorter than the summary of Hesiod) is in a Roman-era collection of myths based largely on the mythologist and poet Pherecydes of Leros. Here Orion is described as earthborn and enormous in stature. This version also mentions Poseidon and Euryale as his parents. It adds a first marriage to Side before his marriage to Merope. All that is known about Side is that Hera threw her into Hades for rivalling her in beauty. It also gives a different version of Orion's death than the Iliad: Eos, the Dawn, fell in love with Orion and took him to Delos where Artemis killed him.^[16] The Greek mythographer Pherecydes of Leros (c. ... An ancient time This page is about the town Side on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. ... For other uses, see Hera (disambiguation). ... Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... Eos, by Evelyn De Morgan (1850 - 1919), 1895 (Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC): for a Pre-Raphaelite painter, Eos was still the classical pagan equivalent of an angel Eos (dawn) was, in Greek Mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of... The island of Delos, Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann, 1847 The island of Delos (Greek: Δήλος, Dhilos), isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of...

Another narrative on the constellations, three paragraphs long, is from a Latin writer whose brief notes have come down to us under the name of Hyginus.^[17] It begins with the oxhide story of Orion's birth, which this source ascribes to Callimachus and Aristomachus, and sets the location at Thebes or Chios.^[18] Hyginus has two versions. In one of them he omits Poseidon;^[19] a modern critic suggests this is the original version.^[20] Callimachus (Greek: ; ca. ... Thebes (Demotic Greek: Θήβα — Thíva; Katharevousa: — Thêbai or Thívai) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. ...

The same source tells two stories of the death of Orion. The first says that because of his "living joined in too great a friendship" with Oenopion, he boasted to Artemis and Leto that he could kill anything which came from Earth. Earth objected and created the Scorpion.^[21] In the second story, Apollo objected to his sister Artemis's love for Orion, and, seeing Orion swimming with just his head visible, challenged her to shoot at that mark, which she hit, killing him.^[22] He connects Orion with several constellations, not just Scorpio. Orion chased Pleione, the mother of the Pleiades, for seven years, until Zeus intervened and raised all of them to the stars.^[23] In Works and Days, Orion chases the Pleiades themselves. Canis Minor and Canis Major are his dogs, the one in front is called Procyon. They chase Lepus, the hare, although Hyginus says some critics thought this too base a prey for the noble Orion and have him pursuing Taurus, the bull, instead.^[24] A Renaissance mythographer adds other names for Orion's dogs: Leucomelaena, Maera, Dromis, Cisseta, Lampuris, Lycoctonus, Ptoophagus, Arctophonus.^[25] For other uses, see Leto (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... Pleione may refer to Pleione (mythology), a figure in Greek mythology Pleione (star), a star belonging to the Pleiades star cluster Pleione (orchid), a genus mainly of ground orchids. ... Pleiades refers to: Pleiades (star cluster) an open cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. ... Canis Minor (IPA: , Latin: ) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also in Ptolemys list of 48 constellations. ... Canis Major (IPA: , Latin: ) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also in Ptolemys list of 48 constellations. ... Procyon (α CMi / α Canis Minoris / Alpha Canis Minoris) is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor and the eighth brightest star in the nighttime sky. ... Lepus (IPA: , Latin: ) is a constellation, lying just south of the Celestial equator, below the constellation Orion, and possibly representing a hare being chased by Orion the hunter. ... Taurus (IPA: , Latin: , symbol , ) is one of the constellations of the zodiac. ... In Greek mythology, two people bore the name Maera. ...

Variants

There are numerous variants in other authors. Most of these are incidental references in poems and scholiasts. The Roman poet Vergil shows Orion as a giant wading through the Aegean Sea rather than walking on the top of it.^[26] There are several references to Hyrieus as the father of Orion that connect him to various places in Boeotia, including Hyria; this may well be the original story (although not the first attested), since Hyrieus is presumably the eponym of Hyria. He is also called Oeneus, although he is not the Calydonian Oeneus.^[27] Other ancient scholia say, as Hesiod does, that Orion was the son of Poseidon and his mother was a daughter of Minos; but they call the daughter Brylle or Hyeles.^[28] There are two versions where Artemis killed Orion, either with her arrows or by producing the Scorpion. In the second variant, Orion died of the Scorpion's sting as he does in Hesiod. Although Orion does not defeat the Scorpion in any version, several variants have it die from its wounds. Artemis is given various motives. One is that Orion boasted of his beast-killing and challenged her to a contest with the discus. Another is that he assaulted either Artemis or the Hyperborean maiden Opis in her band of huntresses.^[29] Aratus's brief description, in his Astronomy, conflates the elements of the myth: according to Aratus, Orion attacks Artemis while hunting on Chios, and the Scorpion kills him there.^[30] Nicander, in his Theriaca, has the scorpion of ordinary size and hiding under a small (oligos) stone.^[31] Most versions of the story that continue after Orion's death tell of the gods raising Orion and the Scorpion to the stars, but even here a variant exists: Ancient poets differed greatly as to who Aesculapius brought back from the dead;^[32] the Argive epic poet Telesarchus is quoted as saying in a scholion that Aesculapius resurrected Orion.^[33] Other ancient authorities are quoted anonymously that Aesculapius healed Orion after he was blinded by Oenopion.^[34] Scholium (tr~bXtoe), the name given to a grammatical, critical and explanatory note, extracted from existing commentaries and inserted on the margin of the manuscript of an ancient author. ... For other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Look up Aegean Sea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Hyria may refer to: Hyria (Boeotia), an ancient town in Boeotia. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... In Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus was a Calydonian king, son of Porthaon, husband of Althaea and father of Deianira, Meleager and Melanippe. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived to the far north of Greece. ... Originally a Sabine goddess, Ops (plenty) was a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology. ... Aratus (Greek Aratos) (ca. ... Nicander (2nd century BC), Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. ... Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ...

The story of Orion and Oenopion also varies. One source refers to Merope as the wife of Oenopion and not his daughter. Another refers to Merope as the daughter of Minos and not of Oenopion.^[35] The longest version (a page in the Loeb) is from a collection of melodramatic plots drawn up by an Alexandrian poet for the Roman Cornelius Gallus to make into Latin verse.^[36] It describes Orion as slaying the wild beasts of Chios and looting the other inhabitants to make a bride-price for Oenopion's daughter, who is called Aëro or Leiro.^[37] Oenopion does not want to marry her to someone like Orion, and eventually Orion, in frustration, breaks into her bedchamber and rapes her. The text implies that Oenopion blinds him on the spot. Cornelius Gallus (c. ...

Johannes Hevelius drew the Orion constellation in Uranographia, his celestial catalogue in 1690

Lucian includes a picture with Orion in a rhetorical description of an ideal building, in which Orion is walking into the rising sun with Lemnos nearby, Cedalion on his shoulder. He recovers his sight there with Hephaestus still watching in the background.^[38] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 723 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (976 × 809 pixels, file size: 137 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Johannes Hevelius drew the Orion constellation in Uranographia, his celestial catalogue in 1690. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 723 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (976 × 809 pixels, file size: 137 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Johannes Hevelius drew the Orion constellation in Uranographia, his celestial catalogue in 1690. ... Johannes Hevelius Johannes Hevelius (Latin), also called Johann Hewelke, Johannes Höwelcke or Johannes Hewel (in German), or Jan Heweliusz (in Polish), (born January 28, 1611 – died January 28, 1687), was a councillor and mayor in Danzig (Gdańsk). ... Lucian. ...

Latin sources add that Oenopion was the son of Dionysus. Dionysus sent satyrs to put Orion into a deep sleep so he could be blinded. One source tells the same story but converts Oenopion into Minos of Crete. It adds that an oracle told Orion that his sight could be restored by walking eastward and that he found his way by hearing the Cyclops' hammer, placing a Cyclops as a guide on his shoulder; it does not mention Cabeiri or Lemnos—this is presumably the story of Cedalion recast. Both Hephaestus and the Cyclopes were said to make thunderbolts; they are combined in other sources.^[40] One scholion, on a Latin poem, explains that Hephaestus gave Orion a horse.^[41] A bald, bearded, horse-tailed satyr balances a winecup on his erect penis, a trick worthy of note, on an Attic red-figured psykter, ca. ... Front face of the MINOS far detector. ... This page is about the mythical creature. ...

Giovanni Boccaccio cites a lost Latin writer for the story that Orion and Candiope were son and daughter of Oenopion, king of Sicily. While the virgin huntsman Orion was sleeping in a cave, Venus seduced him; as he left the cave, he saw his sister shining as she crossed in front of it. He ravished her; when his father heard of this, he banished Orion. Orion consulted an oracle, which told him that if he went east, he would regain the glory of kingship. Orion, Candiope, and their son Hippologus sailed to Thrace, "a province eastward from Sicily". There he conquered the inhabitants, and became known as the son of Neptune. His son begat the Dryas mentioned in Statius.^[42] Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 – December 21, 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poetry in the vernacular. ... In Greek mythology, Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus of Thrace. ... Publius Papinius Statius, (c. ...

Cult and popular appreciation

In Ancient Greece, Orion had a hero cult in the region of Boeotia. The number of places associated with his birth suggest that it was widespread.^[43] Hyria, the most frequently mentioned, was in the territory of Tanagra. A feast of Orion was held at Tanagra as late as the Roman Empire.^[44] They had a tomb of Orion^[45] most likely at the foot of Mount Cerycius (now Mount Tanagra).^[46][47] Maurice Bowra argues that Orion was a national hero of the Boeotians, much as Castor and Pollux were for the Dorians.^[48] He bases this claim on the Athenian epigram on the Battle of Coronea in which a hero gave the Boeotian army an oracle, then fought on their side and defeated the Athenians. Hero cult was one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Tanagra (Greek: Τανάγρα) is a community north of Athens in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, that was noted in antiquity for its mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines. ... Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra (April 8, 1898 – July 4, 1971) was an English classical scholar, teacher, and wit. ... The Gemini or Gemini twins, known in Roman mythology as Castor and Pollux and in Greek as Kastor and Polydeuces, are the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. ... The Battle of Coronea can refer to: Battle of Coronea (447 BC) Battle of Coronea (394 BC) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The Boeotian school of epic poetry was chiefly concerned with the genealogies of the gods and heroes; later writers elaborated this web.^[49] Several other myths are attached to Orion in this way: A papyrus fragment of the Boeotian poet Corinna gives Orion fifty sons (a traditional number). This included the oracular hero Acraephen, who, she sings, gave a response to Asopus regarding Asopus' daughters who were abducted by the gods. Corinna sang of Orion conquering and naming all the land of the dawn.^[50] Bowra argues that Orion was believed to have delivered oracles as well, probably at a different shrine.^[51][52] Hyginus says that Hylas's mother was Menodice, daughter of Orion.^[53] Another mythographer, Liberalis, tells of Menippe and Metioche, daughters of Orion, who sacrificed themselves for their country's good and were transformed into comets.^[54] Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Corinna (or Korinna) was an Ancient Greek poet, probably of the 6th century BC. She came from Tanagra in Boeotia, and according to later legend was the teacher of the much better-known Theban poet Pindar. ... Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse, showing eight priestesses in a temple of prophecy An oracle is a person or persons considered to be the source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... Asopus or Asôpos is the name of five different rivers in Greece and also in Greek mythology the name of the gods of those rivers. ... Corinna (or Korinna) was an Ancient Greek poet, probably of the 6th century BC. She came from Tanagra in Boeotia, and according to later legend was the teacher of the much better-known Theban poet Pindar. ... Two Argonauts before a hunt. ... In Greek mythology, Menippe and Metioche were daughters of Orion. ...

The Fountain of Orion, in Messina, Italy

Orion also has etiological connection to the city of Messina in Sicily. Diodorus of Sicily wrote a history of the world up to his own time (the beginning of the reign of Augustus). He starts with the gods and the heroes. At the end of this part of the work, he tells the story of Orion and two wonder-stories of his mighty earth-works in Sicily. One tells how he aided Zanclus, the founder of Zancle (the former name for Messina), by building the promontory which forms the harbor.^[55] The other, which Diodorus ascribes to Hesiod, relates that there was once a broad sea between Sicily and the mainland. Orion built the whole Peloris, the Punta del Faro, and the temple to Poseidon at the tip, after which he settled in Euboea. He was then "numbered among the stars of heaven and thus won for himself immortal remembrance".^[56] The Renaissance historian and mathematician Francesco Maurolico, who came from Messina, identified the remains of a temple of Orion near the present Messina Cathedral.^[57] Maurolico also designed an ornate fountain, built by the sculptor Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli in 1547, in which Orion is a central figure, symbolizing the Emperor Charles V, also a master of the sea and restorer of Messina;^[58] Orion is still a popular symbol of the city. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Location within Italy Messina with a population of about 260,000 is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. ... This article is about the medical term. ... Location within Italy Messina with a population of about 260,000 is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. ... Diodorus Siculus (c. ... For other persons named Octavian, see Octavian (disambiguation). ... Sicily ( in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ... For the fish species, see Moorish idol. ... Punta del Faro (also Capo Peloro; Greek: , Ptol. ... For the Greek mythological figures see Euboea Euboea, or Negropont or Negroponte (Modern Greek: Εύβοια Évia, Ancient Greek Eúboia), is the second largest of the Greek Aegean Islands and the second largest Greek island overall in area and population (after Crete). ... Francesco Maurolico (in Latin, Franciscus Maurolycus) (September 16, 1494-July 21 or July 22, 1575) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. ... The sculptor Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli (c. ... Charles (February 24, 1500 – September 21, 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles V) from 1519-1558; he was also King of Spain from 1516-1556, officially as Charles I of Spain, although often referred to as Charles V (Carlos Quinto or Carlos V) in Spain and Latin America. ...

Images of Orion in classical art are difficult to recognize, and clear examples are rare. There are several ancient Greek images of club-carrying hunters that could represent Orion,^[59] but such generic examples could equally represent an archetypal "hunter", or indeed Heracles.^[60] Some claims have been made that other Greek art represents specific aspects of the Orion myth. A tradition of this type has been discerned in 5th century BC Greek pottery—John Beazley identified a scene of Apollo, Delian palm in hand, revenging Orion for the attempted rape of Artemis, while another scholar has identified a scene of Orion attacking Artemis as she is revenged by a snake (a counterpart to the scorpion) in a funerary group—supposedly symbolizing the hope that even the criminal Orion could be made immortal, as well as an astronomical scene in which Cephalus is thought to stand in for Orion and his constellation, also reflecting this system of iconography.^[61] Also, a tomb frieze in Taranto (ca. 300 BC) may show Orion attacking Opis.^[62] But the earliest surviving clear depiction of Orion in classical art is Roman, from the depictions of the Underworld scenes of the Odyssey discovered at the Esquiline Hill (50–40 BC). Orion is also seen on a 4th century bas-relief,^[63] currently affixed to a wall in the Porto neighborhood of Naples. The constellation Orion rises in November, the end of the sailing season, and was associated with stormy weather,^[64] and this characterization extended to the mythical Orion—the bas-relief may be associated with the sailors of the city. Alcides redirects here. ... Bilingual amphora by the Andokides Painter, ca. ... Sir John Davidson Beazley (Glasgow, Scotland, 1885 - Oxford, England, 1970) was an English Classical scholar. ... Palm fronds Palm branches, or palm fronds, usually refer to the leaves of the Arecaceae (sometimes known by the names Palmae). ... Cephalus and Aurora, by Nicolas Poussin (c. ... Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, southern Italy. ... The Esquiline Hill is one of the famous seven hills of Rome. ... Porto (Italian: port) is the neighborhood of Naples, southern Italy, that includes the area adjacent to the main passenger terminals of the port of Naples, but does not extend much farther than that to the eastern freight facilities of the port. ...

Interpretations

Renaissance

Apollo, Vulcan and Mercury conceive Orion in an allegory of the three-fathered "philosophical child". The artist stands at the left; Mars at right. Published in 1617.

Mythographers have discussed Orion at least since the Renaissance of classical learning. Renaissance interpretations were allegorical. In the 14th century, Boccaccio interpreted the oxhide story as representing human conception; the hide is the womb, Neptune the moisture of semen, Jupiter its heat, and Mercury the female coldness; he also explained Orion's death at the hands of the moon-goddess as the Moon producing winter storms.^[65] The 16th-century Italian mythographer Natalis Comes interpreted the whole story of Orion as an allegory of the evolution of a storm cloud: Begotten by air (Zeus), water (Poseidon), and the sun (Apollo), a storm cloud is diffused (Chios, which Comes derives from χέω, "pour out"), rises though the upper air (Aërope, as Comes spells Merope), chills (is blinded), and is turned into rain by the moon (Artemis). He also explains how Orion walked on the sea: "Since the subtler part of the water which is rarefied rests on the surface, it is said that Orion learned from his father how to walk on water."^[66] Similarly, Orion's conception made him a symbol of the philosophical child, an allegory of philosophy springing from multiple sources, in the Renaissance as in alchemical works, with some variations. The 16th-century German alchemist Michael Maier lists the fathers as Apollo, Vulcan and Mercury,^[67] and the 18th-century French alchemist Antoine-Joseph Pernety gave them as Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury.^[68] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... Natale Conti (Natalis Comes) (1520-1582) was an important Italian mythographer, and a poet, humanist and historian. ... Allegory of Music by Filippino Lippi. ... AER may stand for: Annual equivalent rate (see also: interest rate) Australian Energy Regulator A.E.R., a sub brand of B.N.C. American Economic Review The IATA airport code for the cities of Adler and Sochi, Russia In Greek mythology, aer was the name for what mortals breathed... The conception of the philosophical child, allegorized as the conception of Orion by three fathers. ... Michael Maier (1568–1622) was a German physician, a counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg and a learned alchemist. ...

Modern

Modern mythographers have seen the story of Orion as a way to access local folk tales and cultic practices directly without the interference of ancient high culture;^[69] several of them have explained Orion, each through his own interpretation of Greek prehistory and of how Greek mythology represents it. There are some points of general agreement between them: for example, that the attack on Opis is an attack on Artemis, for Opis is one of the names of Artemis.^[70] Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular ethnic population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ... In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings (scriptures), its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. ...

There was a movement in the late nineteenth century to interpret all the Boeotian heroes as merely personifications of the constellations.^[71] There has come to be wide agreement since that the myth of Orion existed before there was a constellation named for him. Homer, for example, mentions Orion, the Hunter, and Orion, the constellation, but never confuses the two.^[72] Once Orion was recognized as a constellation, astronomy in turn affected the myth. The story of Side may well be a piece of astronomical mythology. The Greek word side means pomegranate, which bears fruit while Orion, the constellation, can be seen in the night sky.^[73] Rose suggests she is connected with Sidae in Boeotia, and that the pomegranate, as a sign of the Underworld, is connected with her descent there.^[74] Binomial name L. For the color see: Pomegranate (color) The Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5–8 m tall. ...

The 19th-century German classical scholar Erwin Rohde viewed Orion as an example of the Greeks erasing the line between the gods and mankind. That is, if Orion was in the heavens, other mortals could hope to be also.^[75] Erwin Rohde (1845 - 1898) was one of the great German classical scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. ...

The Hungarian mythographer Karl Kerényi, one of the founders of the modern study of Greek mythology, wrote about Orion in Gods of the Greeks (1951). Kerényi portrays Orion as a giant of Titanic vigor and criminality, born outside his mother as were Tityos or Dionysus.^[76] Kerényi places great stress on the variant in which Merope is the wife of Oenopion. He sees this as the remnant of a lost form of the myth in which Merope was Orion's mother (converted by later generations to his stepmother and then to the present forms). Orion's blinding is therefore parallel to that of Aegypius and Oedipus. One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Karl (Carl, Károly) Kerényi (January 19, 1897 - April 14, 1973) was born in Timisoara, then in Hungary, to a family of some landed property. ... Titan may mean: // Titan (mythology), a class of deities who preceded the Olympians in Greek mythology Helios, Greek sun-deity sometimes referred to as Titan (Mahler), nicknamed Titan Titan (satellite), largest satellite of the planet Saturn Titan beetle, the largest beetle in the Amazon rainforest USS Titan (AGOS-15), a... In Greek mythology Tityos was a giant chthonic being of a Titan-like order, the son of Elara, the daughter of King Orchomenus, and Zeus. ... This article is about the ancient deity. ... Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1766) The Eurasian Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus) is also known as the Monk Vulture, the Cinereous Vulture, or just the Black Vulture. ... For other uses, see Oedipus (disambiguation). ...

In Dionysus (1976), Kerényi portrays Orion as a shamanic hunting hero, surviving from Minoan times (hence his association with Crete). Kerényi derives Hyrieus (and Hyria) from the Cretan dialect word hyron, meaning "beehive", which survives only in ancient dictionaries. From this association he turns Orion into a representative of the old mead-drinking cultures, overcome by the wine masters Oenopion and Oeneus. (The Greek for "wine" is oinos.) Fontenrose cites a source stating that Oenopion taught the Chians how to make wine before anybody else knew how.^[77] Mead Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast. ...

Joseph Fontenrose wrote Orion : the Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress (1981) to show Orion as the type specimen of a variety of grotesque hero. Fontenrose views him as similar to Cúchulainn, that is, stronger, larger, and more potent than ordinary men and the violent lover of the Divine Huntress. Orion has also been identified with Actaeon, Leucippus (son of Oenomaus), Cephalus, Teiresias, and Zeus as the lover of Callisto. Fontenrose also sees Eastern parallels in the figures of Aqhat, Attis, Dumuzi, Gilgamesh, Dushyanta, and Prajapati (as pursuer of Ushas). Joseph Edward Fontenrose (1903-1986) was an American classical scholar. ... Type specimens When a new species is discovered, more important than creating a new and unique name for the species is developing a reasonably detailed description. ... Young Cúchulainn (as Sétanta), 1912 illustration by Stephen Reid. ... Actaeon, sculpture group in the cascade at Caserta In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or Aktaion), son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero, trained by the centaur Cheiron, who suffered the fatal wrath of Artemis (or her Roman counterpart Diana). ... In Greek mythology, Leucippus, son of Gorgophone and Perieres, was the father of Phoebe and Hilaeira Castor and Polydeuces abducted and married Phoebe and Hilaeira, the daughters of Leucippus. ... In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa was the son of Ares by Harpina (daughter of Phliasian Asopus) and father of Hippodamia. ... Cephalus and Aurora, by Nicolas Poussin (c. ... In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet, the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ... Callisto can refer to: Callisto (mythology), a nymph in Greek mythology. ... Tablet bearing part of the Danel epic (Musée du Louvre) Danel was a culture hero who appears in an Ugaritic text of the fourteenth century BCE[1] at Ras Shamra, where the name is rendered DNL. He is commonly identified with the Biblical Daniel of Ezekiel. ... Attis wearing the Phrygian cap. ... Northwest Semitic Tammuz (Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz), Arabic تمّوز TammÅ«z; Akkadian Duʾzu, DÅ«zu; Sumerian Dumuzid (DUMU.ZID the true son) was the name of an Ancient Near Eastern deity. ... For other uses, see Gilgamesh (disambiguation). ... Dushyant (दुष्‍यंत) was an ancient king in Hindu mythology. ... In Hinduism, Prajapati is Lord of Creatures, thought to be depicted on ancient Harappan seals, sitting in yogic posture, with an erection and what appear to be bison horns. ... Ushas (उषः úṣas-), Sanskrit for dawn, is the chief goddess (sometimes imagined as several goddesses, Dawns) exalted in the Rigveda. ...

In The Greek Myths (1955), Robert Graves views Oenopion as his perennial Year-King, at the stage where the king pretends to die at the end of his term and appoints a substitute, in this case Orion, who actually dies in his place. His blindness is iconotropy from a picture of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops, mixed with a purely Hellenic solar legend: the Sun-hero is captured and blinded by his enemies at dusk, but escapes and regains his sight at dawn, when all beasts flee him. Graves sees the rest of the myth as a syncretism of diverse stories. These include Gilgamesh and the Scorpion-Men, Set becoming a scorpion to kill Horus and the story of Aqhat and Yatpan from Ras Shamra, as well as a conjectural story of how the priestesses of Artemis Opis killed a visitor to their island of Ortygia. He compares Orion's birth from the bull's hide to a West African rainmaking charm and claims that the son of Poseidon should be a rainmaker.^[78] Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Sir James George Frazer in his influential book The Golden Bough, was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. ... This page is about the mythical creature. ... Tablet bearing part of the Danel epic (Musée du Louvre) Danel was a culture hero who appears in an Ugaritic text of the fourteenth century BCE[1] at Ras Shamra, where the name is rendered DNL. He is commonly identified with the Biblical Daniel of Ezekiel. ... Ugarit (modern site Ras Shamra 35°35´ N; 35°45´E) was an ancient cosmopolitan port city, sited on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria a few kilometers north of the modern city of Latakia. ...

Cultural references

The ancient Greek and Roman sources which tell more about Orion than his being a gigantic huntsman are mostly both dry and obscure. The brief passages in Aratus and Vergil are mentioned above. Pindar celebrates the pancratist Melissus of Thebes "who was not granted the build of an Orion", but whose strength was still great.^[79] Cicero translated Aratus in his youth; he made the Orion episode half again longer than it was in the Greek, adding the traditional Latin topos of madness to Aratus's text. Cicero's Aratea is one of the oldest Latin poems to come down to us as more than isolated lines; this episode may have established the technique of including epyllia in non-epic poems.^[80] Orion is used by Horace, who tells of his death at the hands of Diana/Artemis,^[81] and by Ovid, in his Fasti for May 11, the middle day of the Lemuria, when (in Ovid's time) Orion set with the sun.^[82] This is the story of Hyrieus and the three gods, but Ovid is bashful about the climax; Ovid makes Hyrieus a poor man, to make the sacrifice of an entire ox more generous. There is also a single mention in his Art of Love, as a sufferer from unrequited love: "Pale Orion wandered in the forest for Side."^[83] Statius mentions Orion four times in his Thebiad; twice as the constellation, a personification of storm, but twice as the ancestor of Dryas of Tanagra, one of the defenders of Thebes.^[84] Pindar (or Pindarus) (probably born 522 BC in Cynoscephalae, a village in Boeotia; died 443 BC in Argos), was perhaps the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece. ... Pankration is a sport or martial art introduced in the Olympic games in 648 BC. It combined striking and grappling, and a match would be won by submission of the opponent. ... For other uses, see Cicero (disambiguation). ... In the context of classical Greek rhetoric a topos (literally a place; plural: topoi) referred to a standardised method of constructing or treating an argument. ... An epyllion is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... For other uses, see Artemis (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Ovids Fasti is a long, unfinished Latin poem by the Roman poet Ovid. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... In Roman religion, the Feast of the Lemures, called the Lemuralia or Lemuria, was a feast during which the ancient Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes. ... The Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) is a series of three books by the Roman poet Ovid. ... Publius Papinius Statius, (c. ... In Greek mythology, Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus of Thrace. ...

Nicolas Poussin (1658) "Landscape with blind Orion seeking the sun"

References since antiquity are fairly rare. At the beginning of the 17th century, French sculptor Barthélemy Prieur cast a bronze statue Orion et Cédalion, some time between 1600 and 1611. This featured Orion with Cedalion on his shoulder, in a depiction of the ancient legend of Orion recovering his sight; the sculpture is now displayed at the Louvre.^[85] Nicolas Poussin painted Paysage avec Orion aveugle cherchant le soleil (1658) ("Landscape with blind Orion seeking the sun"), after learning of the description by the 2nd-century Greek author Lucian, of a picture of Orion recovering his sight. In the painting, he combined this description with Natalis Comes's 16th century interpretation of the same scene.^[86] Poussin need not have consulted Lucian directly; the passage is in the notes of the illustrated French translation of Philostratus' Imagines which Poussin is known to have consulted.^[87] The Austrian Daniel Seiter (active in Turin, Italy), painted Diane auprès du cadavre d'Orion (c.1685) ("Diana next to Orion's corpse"), pictured above. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Monument to the heart of Anne de Montmorency Barthélemy Prieur (c. ... In Greek mythology, Cedalion was a blacksmith who worked in the stables of Hephaestus. ... This article is about the museum. ... “Poussin” redirects here. ... Lucian. ... Philostratus, was the name of several, three (or four), Greek sophists of the Roman imperial period: Philostratus the Athenian (c. ... Daniel Seiter (or Saiter) (c. ... Not to be confused with Arion. ...

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Orion

In Endymion (1818), John Keats includes the line "Or blind Orion hungry for the morn", thought to be inspired by Poussin. William Hazlitt may have introduced Keats to the painting—he later wrote the essay "On Landscape of Nicholas Poussin", published in Table Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (1822).^[88] Richard Henry Horne, writing in the generation after Keats and Hazlitt, penned the three volume epic poem Orion in 1843.^[89] It went into at least ten editions and was reprinted by the Scholartis Press in 1928.^[90] Science fiction author Ben Bova re-invented Orion as a time-traveling servant of various gods in a series of five novels. Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Endymion is a poem by John Keats first published in 1818. ... Keats grave in Rome (left). ... // William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, often esteemed the greatest English literary critic after Samuel Johnson. ... Richard Hengist Horne (born Richard Henry Horne) (January 1, 1803 – March 13, 1884), English poet and critic. ... Scholartis Press is a small, private press in London, England, founded by Eric Partridge in 1927. ... Benjamin William Bova (born November 8, 1932) is an American science fiction author and editor. ...

Italian composer Francesco Cavalli wrote the opera, "L'Orione", in 1653. The story is set on the Greek island of Delos and focuses on Diana's love for Orion as well as on her rival, Aurora. Diana shoots Orion only after being tricked by Apollo into thinking him a sea monster—she then laments his death and searches for Orion in the underworld until he is elevated to the heavens.^[91] Johann Christian Bach ('the English Bach') wrote an opera, "Orion, or Diana Reveng'd", first presented at London's Haymarket Theatre in 1763. Orion, sung by a castrato, is in love with Candiope, the daughter of Oenopion, King of Arcadia but his arrogance has offended Diana. Diana's oracle forbids him to marry Candiope and foretells his glory and death. He bids a touching farewell to Candiope and marches off to his destiny. Diana allows him his victory and then kills him, offstage, with her arrow. In another aria, his mother, Retrea (Queen of Thebes), laments his death but ultimately sees his elevation to the heavens.^[92] The 2002 opera Galileo Galilei by American composer Philip Glass includes an opera within an opera piece between Orion and Merope. The sunlight, which heals Orion's blindness, is an allegory of modern science.^[93] Philip Glass has also written a shorter work on Orion, as have Tōru Takemitsu,^[94] Kaija Saariaho,^[95] and John Casken.^[96] David Bedford's late-twentieth-century works are about the constellation rather than the mythical figure as he is an amateur astronomer.^[97] Francesco Cavalli (February 14, 1602 – January 14, 1676), Italian composer, was born at Crema. ... The island of Delos, Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann, 1847 The island of Delos (Greek: Δήλος, Dhilos), isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of... Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. ... Haymarket Theatre, ca. ... A castrato is a male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. ... Galileo Galilei is an opera based on excerpts from the life of Galileo Galilei which premiered in 2002 at Chicagos Goodman Theatre. ... Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is a three-times Academy Award-nominated American composer. ... A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ... Tōru Takemitsu (武満 å¾¹ Takemitsu Tōru, October 8, 1930–February 20, 1996) was a Japanese composer of music, and four time winner of the Japanese Academy Award, who explored the compositional principles of Western classical music and his native Japanese tradition both in isolation and in combination. ... Kaija Saariaho (born October 14, 1952) is a Finnish composer. ... John Casken (b. ... David Vickerman Bedford (born August 4, 1937) is a British composer and musician. ...

The twentieth-century French poet René Char found the blind, lustful huntsman, both pursuer and pursued, a central symbol, as James Lawler has explained at some length in his 1978 work René Char: the Myth and the Poem.^[98] French novelist Claude Simon likewise found Orion an apt symbol, in this case of the writer, as he explained in his Orion aveugle of 1970. Marion Perret argues that Orion is a silent link in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922), connecting the lustful Actaeon/Sweeney to the blind Teiresias and, through Sirius, to the Dog "that's friend to men".^[99] René Char (1907 - 1988) René Char (June 14, 1907 - February 19, 1988) was a 20th century poet. ... Claude Simon (10 October 1913 – 6 July 2005) was the 1985 Nobel Laureate in Literature who in his novels combined the poets and the painters creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition. ... Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ... The Waste Land (1922), sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland, is a highly influential 434-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... Actaeon, sculpture group in the cascade at Caserta In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or Aktaion), son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero, trained by the centaur Cheiron, who suffered the fatal wrath of Artemis (or her Roman counterpart Diana). ... In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet, the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. ...

This illustration of the late-5th century BC Greek vase artwork Blacas krater shows a mythological interpretation of the rising Sun and other astronomical figures—the large pair on the left are