The Constellation
Scorpius |
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Mythology and History |
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The Scorpion. |
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Scorpius represents death, darkness, and everything that
we look on as evil. |
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Orion Boasted that so great was his might and skill as a
hunter that he could kill all the animals on the face of the Earth.
Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate
statement. Gaea decided that Orion must be killed just in case he
might one day decide to carry out his boast. So Gaea sent a giant
scorpion to Orion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As mighty
as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver
the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel (at the
star Rigel). Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in
the sky, but they were placed at opposite ends of the great sky dome so
that they would never engage in battle again. Although there are
other storied about how Orion met his death, this one is the most common. |
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In New Zealand, the constellation is not seen as a scorpion,
but as a heavenly fish hook. |
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The Mayans of Central America named Scorpius "the Sign of
the Death-god." |
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The Romans at one time called Scorpius "the Lurking One." |
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The ancient people of Asia called the evil Antares "the Grave
Digger of Caravans." |
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The Chinese looked on Antares as a star to be worshipped
as a safeguard against fire. They named the star Huo Shing,
meaning "the Fire Star." |
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The farther south one travels until reaching the middle latitudes
of the Southern Hemisphere, the higher the Scorpion rises above the southern
horizon. In doing so, it seems that the Scorpion also loses its image of
being an evil creature. From the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean,
comes the myth of Dümur. The mother of all the stars is Ligedaner
(Capella, in Auriga). Her oldest son is Dümur (Antares) and her youngest
is Pleiades. Her sons came down from the vault of Heaven to visit their
mother, who lived on the atoll Alinablab. While they were there, they suggested
that he who was the first to reach a certain island somewhere in the East
should be proclaimed King of the Stars. |
The suggestion was agreed upon and
all the sons busied themselves to get ready for the departure and their
quest of the coveted kingship. The mother asked first hat her eldest son
should take her with him in his canoe. Dümur flatly refused, since
his mother wanted to take many possessions the weight of which would impede
the movement of his canoe. Then Ligedaner turned to each of her other sons
only to discover that none of them would be willing to grant her request.
Finally only the youngest son, Pleiades, was left. Pleiades did not object
to his mother boarding his canoe or her bringing seven possessions. When
the canoe had been lowered into the water, Ligedaner asked her son to load
one object after the other in his canoe and gave him instructions as to
where to place and fasten each one.
When all was ready, Pleiades started
to row. One can imagine his surprise when the canoe shot forward with the
greatest of ease, without his having to use the oars. The seven objects
his mother brought turned out to be, in fact, previously unknown sail rigging.
Driven by the wind the canoe overtook all the brothers' boats and in no
time it closed in on Dümur's canoe. Dümur now ordered, on the
strength of his right as the first-born son, that his youngest brother
should hand over the canoe to him. With heavy heart Pleiades obeyed. However,
Ligedaner now played a mean trick on her eldest son. She turned the canoe
around and then jumped with Pleiades into the sea, taking with her the
yardarm of the sail. And so they swam on to the island in the East. In
order to sail at all Dümur was forced to fasten the sail to his shoulders.
This is why he has now a bent back. While Dümur tacked to get his
canoe on course again, Ligedaner and Pleiades continued to their destination.
When Dümur finally reached the
island and discovered that his youngest brother had become King of the
Stars, he was so enraged that he wished never to see Pleiades again. This
separation of Dümur and Pleiades can still be observed in the night
sky. When Pleiades rises in the East, Dümur, or the star Antares,
sets in the West. The bent back of Dümur can also still be seen in
the curved line formed by the three bright stars and the line of fainter
stars outlining his bent body in Scorpius. [Source: The New Patterns
in the Sky by Julius D.W. Staal ©1988]
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