“There is a certain place where the
scorpion with his tail and curving claws sprawls across two
signs of the zodiac”, wrote Ovid in his Metamorphoses. He was
referring to the ancient Greek version of Scorpius, which was
much larger than the constellation we know today. The Greek
scorpion was in two halves: one half contained its body and
sting, while the front half comprised the claws. The Greeks
called this front half Chelae, which means ‘claws’.
In the first century BC the Romans made the claws into a separate
constellation, Libra, the Balance.
In mythology, this is the scorpion that
stung Orion the hunter to death, although accounts differ as to
the exact circumstances. Eratosthenes offers two versions.
Under his description of Scorpius he says that Orion tried to
ravish Artemis, the hunting goddess, and that she sent the
scorpion to sting him, an account that is supported by Aratus.
But in his entry on Orion, Eratosthenes says that the Earth
sent the scorpion to sting Orion after he had boasted that he
could kill any wild beast. Hyginus also gives both stories.
Aratus says that the death of Orion happened on the island of
Chios, but Eratosthenes and Hyginus place it in Crete.
In either case, the moral is that Orion
suffers retribution for his hubris. This seems to be one of the
oldest of Greek myths and the origin may lie in the sky itself,
since the two constellations are placed opposite each other so
that Orion sets as his conqueror the scorpion rises. But the
constellation is much older than the Greeks, for the Sumerians
knew it as GIR-TAB, the scorpion, over 5000 years ago.
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Scorpius from the Uranographia of Johann Bode. Part of the scorpion’s body is overlapped by the foot of Ophiuchus. In the middle of the scorpion’s body lies the red star Antares. On this chart, Bode also gives Antares the alternative name Calbalacrab, from the Arabic meaning ‘scorpion’s heart’.
Scorpius clearly resembles a scorpion,
particularly the curving line of stars that form its tail with
its sting raised to strike. Old star maps show one foot of
Ophiuchus, to the north, awkwardly overlapping the
scorpion’s body. Incidentally, Scorpius is the modern
astronomical name for the constellation; Scorpio is the old
name, used by astrologers.
The brightest star in Scorpius is brilliant
Antares, a name that comes from the Greek meaning ‘like
Mars’ (often translated as ‘rival of Mars’)
on account of its strong reddish-orange colour, similar to that
of the planet Mars. Antares is a remarkable supergiant star,
several hundred times the diameter of our Sun. Beta Scorpii is
called Graffias, Latin for ‘claws’. This star is
sometimes also known as Acrab, from the Arabic for
‘scorpion’. Delta Scorpii is called Dschubba, a
strange-sounding name that is a corruption of the Arabic word
meaning ‘forehead’, in reference to its position in
the middle of the scorpion’s head. At the end of the
scorpion’s tail lies Lambda Scorpii, called Shaula from
the Arabic meaning ‘the sting’.
© Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved
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