The constellation, Scorpius the scorpion.
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Chris Gleason, Windows to the Universe Original
Scorpio
To the ancient Greeks, the constellation Scorpius was the image of a scorpion. The
constellation was related to the death of the giant hunter Orion by an enormous
scorpion. There are several different stories about Orion's death. According to one variant, Orion once met the goddess of the chase, Artemis while he was sailing to the island of Crete.
Artemis loved hunting as well as Orion. They began hunting together and enjoying each other's company. Orion became so infatuated with Artemis that he tried to rape her. The goddess avenged herself and set a scorpion on him. No matter how hard he tried, Orion could not defeat the scorpion.
When Orion tried to escape, the scorpion stung him to death with its poisonous tail. As a reward for its services, Artemis placed the image of the scorpion among the stars. To this day, the constellation Scorpius appears in the sky to be ever pursuing the constellation Orion.
In a similar story, Orion was planning to kill all the animals. This made the goddess Gaia very angry because she created them. Gaia sent the giant scorpion to kill Orion. A different version says that Orion escaped the scorpion by swimming out to sea. However, at the same time, Apollo dared Athena to shoot a black dot in the ocean. Athena did not realize it was her lover, and shot Orion with an arrow.
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