Side, the first wife of Orion and possible mother of his daughters Metioche and Menippe. She was cast by Hera into Hades because she rivaled the goddess in beauty.
According to legend, Orion lived on a remote island and loved the life of a hermit. He hunted by night and slept by day. He was quite alone, but not unnoticed. High in the heavens, Orion had a secret admirer — Artemis, goddess of the moon and the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods.
Orion was one of the great Greek lovers, too, said to have fathered 50 sons from sleeping with 50 nymphs.
Side, the first wife of Orion and possible mother of his daughters Metioche and Menippe. She was cast by Hera into Hades because she rivaled the goddess in beauty.
In Greek mythology, the hunter Orion was the most handsome of men. He was the son of the sea god Poseidon and Euryale, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. In Homer's Odyssey, Orion is described as exceptionally tall and armed with an unbreakable bronze club.
She was represented in art and literature with her bow and her hunting dogs, and often with her short dress that made hunting easier. One of Artemis' other major attributes was her virginity. Unlike most Greek women, Artemis remained unmarried and never had children.
Some are thought to be derived from earlier stories from more ancient cultures. One myth says that Orion was banished to the sky for boasting about how many animals he would kill (to impress Eos). He and his hunting dogs, Canis Major and Minor, chase the constellations representing animals, but can never catch them.
According to Greek myth, Orion, led a tragic life that ended when he stepped on a scorpion, known as Scorpius. The gods felt sorry for him so they put him and his faithful dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, into the sky as constellations.
There was a story where the two fell madly in love and would then hunt together, continuously trying to outdo each other. That is until Orion made the mistake of telling Artemis that he could slay anything that came from the earth.
Athena was an armed warrior goddess. The Parthenon at Athens was her most famous shrine. She never had a true lover or someone to hug and hold her; all she had was her loving mother, caring father and most of all her brothers and sisters.
So Orion dominates the winter sky, while his mortal enemy, the scorpion, rules the nights of summer.
Although Orion is one of the most well-known and easily-identified constellations, it is not one of the 12 astrological signs defined by astronomy and constellations (taurus, cancer, pisces, virgo, etc). Orion is located between Taurus and Gemini, which are the second and third astrological signs in the zodiac.
It looks like a large rectangle high in winter's south-southeastern sky. Two of the brightest stars in the evening sky lie at opposite corners of the rectangle: bright orange-red Betelgeuse at the northeastern corner and even brighter Rigel at the southwest.
There are two versions where Artemis killed Orion, either with her arrows or by producing the Scorpion. In the second variant, Orion died of the Scorpion's sting as he does in Hesiod.
Orion soon realized that his strength and sword were useless against that mighty beast. He tried to escape, but the scorpion stung him to death. As a reward, Gaia placed the scorpion in the sky as a constellation which appears to be constantly chasing after Orion whose figure was also placed among the stars.
Accounts of his death vary widely: some legends have him killed by Artemis for trying to rape her, others of Apollo's jealousy over Artemis' love of Orion; still other legends have him killed by a monstrous scorpion.
There is at least one myth that makes it explicit that she shared a degree of physical intimacy with one of her nymphs, Callisto.
Athena is typically depicted as a virgin goddess with no husband or offspring. However, according to a story by the first-century Roman author Hyginus, Athena (called Minerva) is married to Hephaestus (called Vulcan), the god of blacksmithing and artisans.
Artemis was the goddess of chastity, hunting, and the moon, often depicted with her trusty bow and arrow and a short tunic to aid in running through the woods. Her maidenly virtue—for she swore never to marry—was presented in counterpoint to the passionate and fiery Aphrodite.
Artemis is the Greek goddess of hunting. Artemis and Orion's love for each other was forbidden because he was a mortal and she was a goddess. They both have a love for hunting, which is why they became friends and then fell in love.
Apollo's jealousy of Orion seems motivated by his own love for Artemis. Make of this how you will, but one interpretation is that: Her brother, Apollo, was jealous of Artemis' love for Orion, a great hunter . . .
Orion was a giant, the son of Poseidon and Euryale, the daughter of Minos. He arrived at Chios, where he became drunk, and raped Merope, the daughter of Oenopion. As punishment for that, Oenopion blinded Orion and cast him from his land.
Meaning:Rising in the sky; Dawning; Great hunter. Orion is a boy's name of Greek origin, meaning “rising in the sky” and “dawning.” If you think of your son as a shining star, consider this celestial name, pulled right out of the sky.