Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 5, 2007



Orion was a great huntsman of Greek mythology who was placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion. He is described as a great hunter in the ancient Greek epic, the Odyssey, when Ulysses meets him in the underworld. The bare bones of his story are told by the Hellenistic and Roman collectors of myths, but there is no record of him comparable to that of other Greek heroes, such as that of Jason in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes or in Euripides' Medea. The remaining fragments of legend have provided a fertile field for speculation about the prehistory of Greek myth. Ancient sources tell several different stories about Orion. There are two major versions of his birth and several main versions of his death. The most important recorded episodes are his birth somewhere in Boeotia, his visit to Chios where he met Merope and was blinded by her father, Oenopion, the recovery of his sight at Lemnos, his hunting with Artemis on Crete, his death by the blow of Artemis or of the giant scorpion which became Scorpio, and his elevation to the heavens. (more...)

Recently featured: Kingdom Hearts (series) – 1981 Irish hunger strike – Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra railway line, Sydney