Orion, The Hunter

Hello,

This week’s story will be the last one of the semester and it’s a good one. The story of how the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, came to be has many different versions. One of the most popular versions is that Orion announced he would slay all the monsters of earth, so Gaia (aka Mother Earth) sent a giant scorpion for him to battle. Both were mortally wounded and then were placed on opposite sides of the stars so that when one rises the other one sets. This is a wonderful and heroic story and it is the one that Olympus University loves to tell. The real version is much more tragic but it’s a wonderful story and one of my personal favorites.

Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, had fallen in love with a handsome giant named Orion during her time at Olympus University. He became one of her hunting companions and the two were inseparable. They discussed getting married after finishing school, something which Artemis’s twin brother, Apollo, did not like. Apollo didn’t approve of Orion and he wasn’t shy about it either. He had told Artemis many, many times that Orion was going to ruin her oath of virginity because he was a college guy and they only want one thing.

The twins were both excellent archers, I mean, Apollo is the God of Archery and Artemis is the Goddess of the Hunt. Artemis has always been considered the better of the two, though. One night, Apollo bet Artemis that he was a better archer than her. He pointed at a buoy in a body of water that would logically be on campus and challenged her to hit it with a single arrow. She just laughed at her brother as she got her bow ready and then confidently let it fly. She smiled smugly at Apollo when the arrow struck the target, but the smugness immediately fell from her face when she noticed her brother wasn’t the least bit upset about losing to her.

Artemis demanded to know what Apollo had done. He revealed that the target was not actually a buoy but was actually the head of her lover, Orion, who was out for a late-night swim. Artemis immediately swam out to rescue Orion, but it was too late. The heartbroken goddess brought his body back to shore and thought about how to honor the brave hunter. She decided to put him up in the stars as a constellation, so that he could always be with her on her midnight hunts. She also decided to remain a virgin goddess for the rest of eternity to honor her one true love.

While this story is a great romance, it’s also very tragic. I kinda understand why OU likes the scorpion version better. Thanks for a great semester of Greek myths! Check back after the break for more of the truth behind some of Olympus University’s most treasured stories.

-Nobody

Author’s Note: This last story was based on one of the many versions of how Orion, the constellation, came to be. I didn’t change much of the original myth because it is on the shorter side and I just love it too much to make big changes. Instead, I just decided to make this version the “official” account of how Orion became a constellation. The small changes I did make were just to add some more details and make this kind of fit into the college world that I had created. I know it didn’t fit super well in with the other stories I told but it’s personally one of my favorite myths. I think it is really beautiful and it’s one of the only times a god or goddess admits that they made a mistake.

Thank you for reading my Storybook! I had so much fun writing it and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. If anyone reads this from the class next semester and wants to make more stories for Olympus University, you are more than welcome to! I would love to have more “true” myths come to student’s attention.

Bibliography. Orion from Theoi.com. Link to page

Photo from Max Pixel