Scorpius: The Scorpion among the Stars (Catasterism)

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/113-scorpius-constellation-catasterism

Cycle: Local and lesser — astral aetiology / Orion cycle

Version line: Catasterismic handbook — scorpion that killed Orion as Scorpius

Sources: Eratosthenes, *Catasterismi* 7, 32; Hyginus, *Astronomica* 2.26, 2.34; Apollodorus, *Library* 1.4.3–5 (Orion’s death variants)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/113-scorpius-constellation-catasterism.md

Characters

Artemis — sender or offended goddess in alternate strands
Gaia — sender of the scorpion in one strand
Orion — hunter; victim; opposing constellation
Philotes — catasterizing god in handbook form
Scorpius — killer of Orion; stellified

Places

Olympus — death (background)
Path of the sun — Scorpius opposite Orion’s setting

Themes

Succession

Narrative

The giant scorpion that Gaia (or Artemis) sent against Orion—because he boasted he would kill all beasts, or because he assaulted Artemis—slew him and was itself set in the heavens as Scorpius. Zeus (or Artemis/Apollo) placed both hunter and scorpion among the stars so that Scorpius rises as Orion sets: they never meet again in the sky, an astral aetiology of pursuit and flight. The zodiacal Scorpius thus memorializes Orion’s death-beast, distinct from the narrative of the hunt and the boast. Catalogue Scorpius as constellation; the death-story remains in 05/097.