The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy

orion. 463
the son of Dionysos and Ariadne. He sought her in mar-
but while wooing, seized a favourable opportunity, and
riage ;
offered her violence. Her father, incensed at this conduct,
having made Orion drunk, blinded him when asleep, and cast
him on the sea-shore. The blinded hero contrived to reach
Lemnos, and came to the forge of Hephsestos, who takingpity
on him, gave him Kedalion {Guardian), one of his men,
to be his guide to the abode of the Sun. Placing Kedalion
on his shoulder, Orion proceeded to the East; and there
meeting the Sun-god, was restored to vision by his beam.
Anxious for vengeance on CEnopion, he returned to Chios
but the Chians, aware of his intention, concealed the object
of his search under the ground, and Orion unable to find him
retired to Crete a .
The death of Orion is differently related. As all the legends
respecting him are evidently later than the time of Homer,
none ventures to assign any other cause to it than the god-
dess Artemis, whose wrath (though Homer rather says the
contrary) he drew on himself. Some said that he attempted
to offer violence to the goddess herself; others, to Opis, one
of her Hyperborean maidens, and that Artemis slew him with
her arrows ; others again, that it was for presuming to challenge
the goddess at the discus. It was also said, that when
he came to Crete, he boasted to Leto and Artemis that he
was able to kill anything that would come from the earth.
Indignant at his boast they sent a huge scorpion, which stung
him, and he died. It was said, finally, that Artemis loved
Orion, and was even about to marry him. Her brother was
highly displeased, and often chid her, but to no purpose. At
length, observing one day Orion wading through the sea with
his head just above the waters, he pointed it out to his sister,
and maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the
sea. The archer-goddess discharged a shaft : the waves rolled
the dead body of Orion to the land ; and bewailing her fatal
error with many tears, Artemis placed him among the stars b .
a Ilesiod ut suj). Apollod. ut sup. llygin. ut sup.
b Ilesiod, Euphorion and others, ut supra.
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