Orion is the son of Poseidon and the Gorgon Euryale, according to Hesiod. Poseidon granted him the ability to walk on water.
⚠ Orion's genealogy varies widely. Other traditions describe him as earth-born (autochthonous), born from the urine of three gods (Hyginus), or son of Hyrieus alone.
Eos, goddess of the dawn, took Orion as her lover and carried him off to Delos, until Artemis slew the hunter with her arrows on Ortygia.
Hyrieus of Boeotia, a childless old man, entertained three gods in disguise and asked for a son. From a bull-hide buried in the earth, Orion was miraculously born — named Urion for his strange origin before the name shifted.
⚠ This Boeotian tradition (Ovid, Fasti 5.493-544; Hyginus, Fabulae 195) conflicts with Hesiod's genealogy making Orion son of Poseidon and Euryale.
Orion married Side, but she was cast into Hades by Hera for boasting that her beauty surpassed the queen of the gods. Side's death predates Orion's encounter with Merope on Chios.
Artemis and the giant hunter Orion ranged the wilds together as hunting companions, matched in skill and love of the chase, until his death shattered the bond.
Apollo contrived the death of Orion by tricking Artemis into shooting the hunter with her own arrow, unwilling to let any mortal grow so close to his virgin sister.
⚠ Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 1.4.5) gives Apollo's motive as protecting Artemis's virginity; Hyginus (Astronomica 2.34) implies jealousy over Artemis's affection for the hunter.
Artemis shot Orion with her arrows, slaying the great hunter whom she had once counted as her companion. He was set among the stars, forever pursued by the Scorpion across the night sky.
⚠ Sources sharply disagree on the circumstances: Apollodorus says Artemis killed Orion for challenging her or assaulting Opis; Hyginus says Apollo tricked Artemis into shooting Orion by pointing out a distant target at sea; Hesiod implies Artemis killed him for pursuing the Pleiades.
The Scorpion of Orion stung and killed the great hunter after Gaia sent it to punish his boast that he would slay every wild creature. Both were placed as constellations on opposite sides of the sky, never visible together.
⚠ The Scorpion tradition (Eratosthenes, Hyginus) is an alternative to the Artemis-killing traditions in Apollodorus and Homer. Some sources have both — the Scorpion kills Orion, and Artemis requests his catasterism.
Artemis placed Orion among the stars after his death, the great hunter immortalized as the constellation that bears his name, forever visible in the winter sky.
In Pseudo-Eratosthenes' Catasterismi, Artemis asked Asclepius to resurrect the slain Orion, but Zeus struck Asclepius with a thunderbolt before he could complete the revival, preserving the boundary between life and death.
The rays of Helios restored Orion's sight after the blinded hunter traveled east to where the sun rises, guided by a servant from Hephaestus's forge on Lemnos.
After Oenopion blinded Orion on Chios, the hunter traveled to the forge of Hephaestus on Lemnos and took one of the smith god's servants as a guide to lead him eastward toward the rising sun.
Orion sought Merope of Chios as his bride, but when her father Oenopion refused, Orion assaulted her. This act led to Oenopion blinding Orion in retribution.
Oenopion, king of Chios, blinded Orion after the hunter assaulted his daughter Merope. Orion wandered sightless until Hephaestus's servant guided him east to be healed by the sun's rays.
Orion pursued the Pleiades across the earth for years until Zeus transformed the seven sisters into stars to save them. In the night sky, the constellation Orion eternally chases the Pleiades star cluster.
Zeus transformed the Pleiades into stars to save them from Orion's relentless pursuit. He later placed Orion himself among the stars, where the hunter's constellation eternally chases the Pleiades cluster across the sky.
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