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Mythology of Orion and Scorpius

The document discusses the constellations of Orion and Scorpius as seen from Europe thousands of years ago. People noticed that as Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west, so the two were never seen together. Ancient Greeks created a mythology to explain this, that Orion was killed by a scorpion sent by Gaia. From a scientific perspective, the pattern is because Earth rotates daily, so different constellations are visible at different times of night throughout the year from different locations on Earth.

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154 views2 pages

Mythology of Orion and Scorpius

The document discusses the constellations of Orion and Scorpius as seen from Europe thousands of years ago. People noticed that as Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west, so the two were never seen together. Ancient Greeks created a mythology to explain this, that Orion was killed by a scorpion sent by Gaia. From a scientific perspective, the pattern is because Earth rotates daily, so different constellations are visible at different times of night throughout the year from different locations on Earth.

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Earth’s place in space

Star-crossed story

Constellation of Orion Constellation of Scorpius

In Europe, thousands of years ago people saw the two star constellations pictured above,
and thought they resembled a hunter (Orion) and a scorpion (Scorpius). We can see them in
Australia but they look upside down and back to front to us.
People also noticed that the two constellations are never seen at the same time in the night
sky: as Scorpius appears in the East, Orion disappears in the West.
They came up with the following mythology to explain what they saw:
‘Orion went away to Krete and spent his time hunting in company with Artemis (the god of
hunting) and Leto (Artemis’ mother). It seems that he threatened to kill every beast there was
on earth; whereupon, in her anger, Ge (the Earth) sent up against him a Scorpion of very
great size by which he was stung and so perished. After this Zeus (king of the gods), at the
prayer of Artemis and Leto, put him among the stars, because of his manliness, and the
Scorpion also as a memorial of him and of what had occurred.’
(Greek epic, 8th or 7th century BC)

Your challenge
Can you explain the observations from the point of view of a scientist?
Cut out Scorpius, Orion, the Sun and the Earth and place them on your desk in different
positions. Use the cut-outs to determine what an observer on Earth can see.

Resource sheet 7
Earth’s place in space

Star-crossed story

Resource sheet 7

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