Orion

Orion star chart (IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine, Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg).

One of the 88 IAU constellations.

Orion-Group of constellations on the Kugel Globe, drawing and animated GIF by SMH 2025.

Etymology and History

The Greek constellation ...

Origin of Constellation

Greco-Roman

Aratus

[322] Aslant from the cut-off figure of the Bull lies Orion himself. Anyone whose glance misses him when he is positioned high up on a clear night may be sure he can never sight anything better to identify when he gazes up at the sky. (Kidd 1997)

Hyginus, Astronomica

Hesiod calls him the son of Neptune by Euryale, daughter of Minos. He had the ability of running over the waves as if on land, just as it is said that Iphiclus could run over standing grain and not bruise it.

Aristomachus says that there lived a certain Hyrieus at Thebes — Pindar puts him on the island of Chios — who asked from Jove and Mercury when they visited him that he might have a child. To gain his request more readily he sacrificed an ox and put it before them for a feast. When he had done this, Jove and Mercury asked him to remove the hide from the ox; then they urinated in it, and bade him bury the hide in the ground. From this, later on, a child was born whom Hyrieus called Urion from the happening, though on account of his charm and affability he came to be called Orion.

He is said to have come from Thebes to Chios, and when his passions were excited by wine, he attacked Merope, the daughter of Oinopion. For this he was blinded by Oinopion and cast out of the island. But he came to Lemnos and Vulcan, and received from him a guide named Cedalion. Carrying him on his shoulders, he came to Sol, and when Sol healed him returned to Chios to take vengeance on Oinopion. The citizens however, guarded Oinopion underground. Despairing of finding Oinopion, Orion came to Crete, and there began to hunt with Diana. He made the boast to her we have mentioned before, and thus came to the stars. Some say that Orion lived with Oinopion in too close intimacy, and wanting to prove to him his zeal in hunting, boasted to Diana, too, what we spoke of above, and so was killed. Others, along with Callimachus, say that when he wished to offer violence to Diana, he was transfixed by her arrows and fashioned for the stars because of their similar zeal in hunting.

Istros, however, says that Diana loved Orion and came near marrying him. Apollo took this hard, and when scolding her brought no results, on seeing the head of Orion who was swimming a long way off, he wagered her that she couldn't hit with her arrows the black object in the sea. Since she wished to be called an expert in that skill, she shot an arrow and pierced the head of Orion. The waves brought his slain body to the shore, and Diana, grieving greatly that she had struck him, and mourning his death with many tears, put him among the constellations. But what Diana did after his death, we shall tell in the stories about her. (Mary Ward 1960)

Almagest Ὡρίων

id	Greek (Heiberg 1898)	English (Toomer 1984)	ident.
	Ὡρίωνος ἀστερισμός	Constellation of Orion
1	ὁ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τοῦ δρίωνος νεφελοειδής	Thc nebulous star in the hcad of Orion	lam Ori
2	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ ὤμου λαμπρὸς ὑπόκιρρος	The bright, reddish star on the right shoulder	alf Ori
3	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀριστεροῦ ὥμου	The star on the left shoulder	gam Ori
4	ὁ ὑπὸ τοῦτου ἐπόμενος	The one under this to the rear	32 Ori
5	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ ἀγκῶνος	The star on the right elbow	mu Ori
6	ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ πήχεως	The star on the right forearm	74 Ori
7	τοῦ ἐν τῷ δεξιῷ ἀκροχείρῳ τετραπλεύρου τῆς φοτίου : πλευρᾶς ὁ ἐπόμενος καὶ διπλοῦς	The quadrilateral in the right hand: the rear, double star on the southern side	xi Ori
8	ὁ προηγούμευος τῆς νοτίου πλευρᾶς	The quadrilateral in the right hand: the advance star on the southern side	nu Ori
9	τῆς βορείου πλευρᾶς ὁ ἐπόμενος	The quadrilateral in the right hand: the rear one on the northern side	72 Ori
10	ὁ προηγούμενος τῆς βορεύου πλευρᾶς	The quadrilateral in the right hand: the advance one on the northern side	69 Ori
11	τῶν ἐν τῷ κολλορόβῳ β ὁ προηγούμενος	The more advanced of the 2 stars in the staff	chi1 Ori
12	ὁ ἑπόμευος αὐτῶν	The rearmost of them	chii2 Ori
13	τῶν κατὰ τοῦ ψώτου δ ὡς ἐπ’ εὐθείας ὁ ἐπόμεσος	The rearmost of the 4 stars almost on a straight line just over the back	ome Ori
14	ὁ τούτου προηγούμεσος	The one in advance of this	38 Ori
15	ὁ ἔτι τούτου προηγούμενος	The one in advance again of this	33 Ori
16	ὁ λοιπὸς καὶ προηγούμενος τῶν δ	The last and most advanced of the 4	psi Ori
17	τῶν ἐν τῇ δορᾷ τῆς ἀριστερᾶς χειρὸς ὁ βόρειος	Stars in the pelt on the left arm: the northernmost	15 Ori
18	ὁ β’ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 2nd from the northernmost	11 Ori
19	ὁ γ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 3rd from the northernmost	omi2 Ori
20	ὁ δ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 4th from the northernmost	pi1 Ori
21	ὁ ε ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτοη	the 5th from the northernmost	pi2 Ori
22	ὁ ς’ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 6th from the northernmost	pi3 Ori
23	ὁ ξ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 7th from the northernmost	pi4 Ori
24	ὁ ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορειοτάτου	the 8th from the northernmost	pi5 Ori
25	ὁ λοιπὸς καὶ νοτιώτατος τῶν ἐν τῇ δορᾷ	the last and southernmost of those in the pelt	pi6 Ori
26	τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς ζώνης ν’ ὁ προηφούμευος	The most advanced of the 3 stars on the belt	del Ori
27	ὁ μέσος αὐτῶν	The middle onc	eps Ori
28	ὁ ἑπόμευος τῶν τριῶν	Thc rearmost of the three	zet Ori
29	ὁ πρὸς τῇ λαβῇ τῆς μαχαύρας	The star near the handle of the dagger	eta Ori
30	τῶν ἐπ’ ἄκρα τῇ μαχαίρᾳ συυημμένων γ’ ὁ βόρειος	Thc northernmost of the 3 starsjoined tagether at the tip ofthe dagger	42 + 45 Ori
31	ὁ μέσος αὐτῶν	The middle one	tet1 + tet2 Ori
32	ὁ φότιος τῶν τριῶν	The southernmost of the three	iot Ori
33	ὁ τῶν ὑπὸ τὸ ἄκρου τῆς μαχαίρας β’ ὁ ἐπόμενος	The rearmost of thc 2 stars under the tip of the daggcr	49 Ori
34	ὁ προηγούμενος αὐτῶν	The more advanced of them	ups Ori
35	ὁ ἐν τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἀκρόποδι λαμπρὸς κοινὸς Ὕδατος	Thc bright star in the left foot, which is [applied in] common to the water [ of Eridanus]	bet Ori
36	ὁ βορειότερος αὐτῶν ὑπὲρ τὸν ἀστράγαλον ἐν τῇ κυήμῃἡ	The star to thc norih of it 76 in the lower leg, over the ankle-joint	tau Ori
37	ὁ ὑπὸ τὴν ἀριστερὰν πτέρηα» ἐκτός	The star under thc lelt hecl, outside	29 Ori
38	ὁ ὑπὸ τὸ δεξιὸν καὶ ἐπόμενου γόνυ	The star under the right, rear knee	kap Ori
	ἀστέρες λη, ὥν αἱ μεγέθους β, β’ δ, γ’ἡ, δ’ ἵε, εφ, ς ἓ, νεφελοειδής	{38 stars, 2 of the first magnitude, 4 ofthe second, 8 ofthe third, 15 of the fourth, 3 of the fifth, 5 of the sixth, [1] nebulous}

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

• 

  Orion with two dogs on the Kugel Globe (drawing by SMH 2021)

• 

  Orion on the Mainz Globe with one dog (drawing by SMH 2021)

• 

  Orion on the Farnese Globe (drawing by SMH 2017)

• 

  Orion drawn in an early as-Sufi manuscript (1170). Kitāb Ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thābitah (Bodleian Library MS. Huntington 212, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) Place of Origin: Mosul

• 

  Orion on the Mercator Globe (1551)

• 

  Orion in Hevelius (1690)

• 

  Orion in Flamsteed/Fortin (1776)

• 

  Orion in Bode (1782,1805)

• 

  Orion in Bode's Uranographia (1801)

References

• References (general)
• References (Babylonian)
• References (ancient Greco-Roman)
• References (medieval)