Scorpius Redeemed

With the winter constellations setting, Orion is disappearing over the western horizon. Appearing on the eastern side is one of the most prominent summer constellations, his mortal enemy Scorpius. I shared one story of Orion and Scorpius in an earlier post (http://miskwaadesi.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-orion.html), but it turns out that Scorpius isn't necessarily the bad guy he's painted to be in that story.

Scorpius is one of the twelve zodiac constellations. Scorpios are born in late October and November, when the sun is shining through the constellation (which is why you can't see a zodiac constellation in the night sky during its reigning month). Scorpios are said to have some similar qualities to scorpions,  namely that they can be fairly reclusive, but also passionate and emotional. The sign of Scorpio is correlated with the time that farmers are putting their crops into storage (after weighing and distributing the grains in October, under Libra, the scales). The dark cellars, silos and barns are the ideal habitat of a scorpion.

In fact, on very clear nights, you can see that Scorpio appears to be crawling out of a dark spot in the Milky Way. Some believed that this dark spot was actually a portal to the Underworld, from which the scorpions emerged.

It is easy to see this reclusive, vermin-like creature that lives in dark holes and crevices as a villain, and the Orion story we tell children in the star lab perpetuates that image. However, other versions of the story paint Orion as the true villain, a boastful hunter, famous for bragging that he would one day kill every creature on the Earth. Hera, watching Orion from Mount Olympus, was a fan of neither his boasting nor his claims, and so sent Scorpius on a mission to humble him. While Scorpius did manage to sting the hunter, he was mortally wounded by Orion's club in doing so. Hera placed the scorpion in the stars in honor of his service to the gods of Mount Olympus and as a reminder of the cost of being too boastful.

An addendum to the story brings a few more constellations into the plot. Ophiucus, the great physician, apparently brought Orion back to life with a scorpion antidote, which is why the doctor is seen standing above the scorpion as it sets in the west, simultaneous with Orion's recovery and reappearance in the east. Zeus, disapproving of Ophiucus' interference with the work of the gods, sent Aquila the eagle with a lightning bolt to kill the physician. Look to see the eagle, poised in a threatening posture above Ophiucus, as the physician disappears below the horizon, mortally wounded.

Depending on how the story is told, Scorpius is either the hero or the villain. Either way, the constellation will be appearing low on the horizon as the night continue to get warmer.