What's in the stars: ORION

The majority of the people know the Ursa Major. And if you know where to find it, too, you also know where to find Polaris. A bit of an astronomy lover looks for another constellation to go with it, minimum. You could go for Cassiopeia, or even better… Orion.
Orion is an impressive constellation. Size wise, it's on the 26th place when ranked, but brightness wise it's number one together with the Ursa Major. The three stars have beautiful names, Rigel, Bellatrix and Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is an old and giant star, it shines brighter and thus gives 8000 meters more light than the sun. Bellatrix is a small star, but shines bright. Rigel is a young star yet shines brighter than Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. And then… the belt. Orion's belt, that is what you'll have to look for, lined out all neat and pretty. With Arabic names; Mintaka, 'the giant's belt', is what it means. Alnilam 'The pearl necklace', Alnitak 'the Belt'. Pretty, isn't it?

Orion.. who was Orion? Orion was a really tough guy. A hunter. A chin full of willpower, but also gentle eyes, and curls. So handsome that.. A bit woman, two things at the same time. You want to see him, for that body, those eyes, but you also wants to get away from him; you want to flee. By intuition you know that he can make you lose yourself, he's that overwhelming. Orion was from godly origin, son of the see, Poseidon. Poseidon gave him the ability to walk over water. To just name one of the many.

This handsome man, once lived, one day came into touch with the daughter of a king, Merope. He chose Merope to become the chosen one… chosen to marry him. Orion wanted to marry her. I can see Merope as if she was (still) alive.. A pretty girl, didn't have too much to do, she mainly was.. well.. just.. pretty. A true palace child, she had everything she wanted. She was used to luxury, to be the most important person on the world, maybe she wasn't all that surprised that Orion wanted to marry her.
Her father, king Oinopion, was troubled by it. Orion had better forget about his plans, in his opinion. The king had to make up something.. He promised that Merope could be his bride, but there was one condition; his island, Chios, was inhabited by a lot of wild animals. If Orion managed to rid the island of those animals…
These days you can easily fly to Chios and go camping there, and maybe you'll encounter a salamander there, but in that time.. apparently, there lived a lot of wolves.. a lot of giant and wild animals. The condition Oinopion set could easily be seen as refusing to have his daughter wed Orion. You could also see it as a chance, as a favor. This is what Orion did. He decided to start, go out hunting. Every night he'd knock Merope's door and give her the animals' skins.

"And?"
"A couple of wolves, a few young bears."
"Mmm, cute."

The next evening; "A bit of luck. Two lions."

The girly room of Merope quickly got filled with a lot of rugs, with giant Lion's heads on them, circular bear eyes, and wolves laughing at you. Then, one night. "And?" "Nothing really, tonight.. Unless you want a bunny. Couldn't find anything else." From his pocket, he takes some salamanders.
"I think I'm done."

Oinopion swore that there still were lion's in the mountains. He'd seen them. Or had heard them. Or he knew it from informants that there were Wolves around those lands.
Orion checks everything, he knows he's done. What becomes a lot clearer.. is that the king doesn't want him to marry his daughter. He doesn't see Merope too often anymore because he doesn't have anything to show her. So he drinks, on his own. He drinks sacks of wine. His hatred towards the king grows, but so does his love for Merope…
One night the alcohol gets the best of him, he feels almighty, romantic. He manages to make his way to Merope's bedroom and forces her to.. sleep with him.
By dawn, he is discovered. The wine has put him into a deep sleep. The story tells that Merope's father got Orion even more to drink by dawn. Whilst Orion is fast asleep, Oinopion commands his servants to throw Orion on the beach, after stabbing Orion's eyes with his own two hands.
"This guy won't live to see Merope anymore." And there he is, on the beach, the sea tickling his toes.

By the way, Rigel, the star in Orion, is also called the sea star. The Marinu Aster. You can really 'starshoot' it. A favorite of the sailors, they can easily determine where they are if they used a sextant on Rigel.
That is quite remarkable. Nowadays, you can use GPS and satellite systems to determine where you are on sea, but until the seventies 'shooting stars' was the only way to determine your place on the big, big ocean.
Before the seventies, ships often didn't arrive at the right place, or they just didn't arrive anywhere at all. Or didn't get around a headland. At the end of the 18th century, astro-navigation got the slightest bit reliable.
The problem with determining where you are is finding the right longitude of where you are. The latitude is found by looking at the Polaris or Crux (Southern Cross). These are set points, and if you then measure the angle, you know where you are on Earth; close or farther away of your goal. But the longitude.. the sky constantly moves.

..No, we constantly move. But still. Centuries long, people have been trying to solve this problem. The Spanish king promised people a prize if they solved it. The Dutch government, France and Spain all promised a big cash prize to the person who'd solve it.

In 1714 AD, the British parliament promised 20,000 pounds for a solution. There were two serious options which were being worked on around that time.
Working with all kinds of difficult star tables and taking the placing of the moon on the horizon in account, or making a clock that also works on the sea. If you know the exact time, you also know when which star is supposed to be where. But a clock like this.. John Hamilton took 48 years to make it. He made a clock, which his son was going to test. After a journey to Barbados, the clock was off only 39,2 seconds. A special 'order of the longitude' journeyed with him, from Barbados to Madeira, I think. Hamilton wins. From this moment forward, astro-navigation has become reliable. There still is an official law from the United Nations under the section "what an officer of waiting should be able to do and know" saying that he has to orientate himself on the stars. At sailor schools, they hate the class… The majority fails the exam.

Orion wakes up, on the beach. He's blind.
Where his eyes are supposed to be.. he feels.. nothing. It's that Hephaestos, a king of one of the neighboring islands, that his story didn't end here. He makes sure a servant of his accompanies Orion to serve as his eyes. Orion will get his eyes back, or so said an oracle.. If he's able to catch the rays of the sun rising in the east, his eyes will be healed. The strong Orion takes the servant and puts him his own shoulders, and starts walking accordingly to what the servant says. Finally, when they arrive, Orion catches the rays of light with his eyes, and the night has ended for him.. the sun rises.

That is Orion's story. A powerful constellation. Actually, I'm not sure whether he still longs for Merope. I forgot about it.. with a father in law like that king.. that wouldn't work out.
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