Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. I hope you all had a happy holidays.
In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Orion, the great hunter who had his vision
returned to him by the sun and who was set in the sky as a constellation after his death.
Let’s get into it.
Described as exceptionally handsome and prodigiously strong, Orion was a hunter of
enormous size. Only Artemis, the divine huntress herself - and perhaps Hercules - was his better
in the arts of stalking and slaying beasts. He could walk on water, striding across waves as
other men moved over land. After his death, he was enshrined when his star-studded likeness
was set in the great vault of the heavens as a constellation.
He was the son of Poseidon and of Euryale, a daughter of King Minos.
Another version gives a more elaborate account of his conception and birth: Hyrieus of Thrace
beseeched the gods for a son. The gods - in this case Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes - all urinated in
a bull’s hide, which was then buried. After nine months of subterranean gestation, Orion emerged.
In this way, Orion’s birth was like that of Tityus', who also emerged from the earth when
he was born, but unlike Orion, Tityus was buried by Zeus so as to hide him from Hera,
who - though understandable - was notoriously wrathful towards other women Zeus took to bed.
Side was Orion’s first wife, but like so many in Greek mythology,
her hubris and temerity paved the path towards her own ruin. She claimed to rival Hera in beauty, a
claim that plucked her from the land of the living and cast her down to Tartarus. Following this,
Orion came to Chios, where he entered into King Oenopion’s service. He was commissioned by the
king to use his great prowess as a hunter and rid the island of wild beasts. However,
much more than tracking and killing in the wilds would transpire. There are many versions that
detail what happened next, but they all end with Oenopion blinding Orion while he slept.
They range from Orion wanting to marry Oenopion’s daughter, Merope, to Orion outraging Merope
with his drunk antics, to Orion trying to force himself on Merope, to Orion taking Merope by force
Thus began Orion’s odyssey, which was to find his way to the sun god Helios
so as to restore his vision, bringing the light of the world back to his dark eyes.
First Orion groped his way to the forges of Hephaestus. Here he grabbed a young boy and set
him on his shoulder. Perched up there, the boy was like a lookout standing in a crow’s nest, guiding
a ship from up high on the mast. (Another less flattering version paints a more pitiable picture,
which was that Orion had become a wayward beggar who, by happenstance, was found by Hepaestus,
who gave Orion Cedalion, one his servants, to guide him.) The boy was Orion’s eyes, and the
two of them set out to find the sun. They covered ground quickly, with the tireless pace of Orion’s
long stride working in concert with the boy’s keen eyes choosing the right roads to travel.
At journey’s end, golden rays shined down, burning out the dark, replacing Orion’s sorrow
with brilliant sight. Now able to see again, Orion emerged from his desperate plight with
a mind for revenge. He paid Oenopion a visit, but was unable to exact his revenge - not for a
lack of trying. Poseidon provided Oenopion with an underground chamber. Forged by Hephaestus,
it was virtually indestructible, rendering Orion’s wrath ineffectual: he became resigned
to the fact that he could not lay his hands on the king who had blinded and banished him.
His revenge out of reach, Eos, the personification of the dawn, fell in love with him and bore him to
Delos. (One version had Eos' love born of a curse Aphrodite cast on her for sharing Ares’ bed.)
There are many versions that detail Orion’s death. None of them have him slip away in his sleep,
old and content. They all centre on Artemis killing him in some way for some reason. In one,
Artemis kills him for having the audacity to challenge her to a discus contest;
another has Artemis fill him with arrows for attempting to force himself on Opis,
a virgin who had arrived from the Hyperboreans;
and yet another has Artemis set a scorpion on him after he tried to force himself on her
In the odyssey, Odysseus recalls the shades of the dead he witnesses in the Underworld.
He saw Orion, a mighty mace of bronze in hand, roaming the Asphodel Fields, driving beasts,
the very beasts he had killed when the strength of life was still his to wield.
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