As it's said in legend, Orion was a great hunter, who boasted that there was no animal he couldn't kill, according to EarthSky. He grew so proud and skillful, in fact, that he said he would kill every animal on the planet. This angered Gaia, the goddess of earth and protector of animals, so she sent her most fearsome animal — Scorpio, a giant scorpion — after Orion to kill him once and for all. In a legendary environmentalist victory, Scorpio stung Orion to death.
This is why when the gods put Scorpio and Orion in the night sky, they put them at opposite ends of the earth — Scorpio rises as Orion sets. The interpretation is that Orion is allowed to hunt during the winter, but is chased out by Scorpio in the spring, according to Globe at Night.
Scorpions are seen in other Greek myths tied to the constellation as well, according to Britannica. In one story, Phaeton, the foolish son of the god Helios, asked his father to let him drive the chariot that sent the sun across the sky (via Shmoop). As Phaeton got close to the constellation Scorpio, he became (understandably) terrified of the monster's stinger and lost control of the chariot.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCClnFpcmxfqbWmecyyq6GnnKS0unnBnp%2BippRiwamxjKyaqKqgnrxur86nqq2dnKGutbXOp2SesKChrqq6xJ1m