♠ Istros 334F64 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker pt. 3 B, pp. 184-85, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Palaiphatos 51 – Mythographi Graeci vol. 3 pt. 2, pp. 71-72, ed. N. Festa. Leipzig 1902.
Orion: Child of Zeus Poseidon and Hermes. Hyrieus the son of Poseidon and Alcyone, one of the daughters of Atlas, dwelt in Tanagra of Boeotia. He was extremely hospitable and once entertained the gods. Zeus and Poseidon and Hermes were hosted by him. Having been beneficiaries of his kind treatment, they urged him to ask whatever he wanted. Since he was childless, he asked for a child. The gods took the hide of the ox that had been sacrificed for them and ejaculated in it. They ordered him to hide it under ground and to take it up again after ten months. When the time passed, Ourion was born, named from the gods’ having urinated. Afterwards, Orion as a euphemism. Greek Text
♠ A Scholia at Homer, Iliad 18.486 – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem 2, pp. 168-69, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1875.
♠ Ovid, Fasti 5.493-536
If you look for Boeotian Orion in the middle of these three days, you will be disappointed. I must now sing of the cause of the constellation. Jupiter, and his brother who reigns in the deep sea, and Mercury, were journeying together. It was the time when the yoked kine draw home the upturned plough, and the lamb lies down and drinks the milk of the full ewe. An old man Hyrieus, who cultivated a tiny farm, chanced to see them as he stood before his little cottage; and thus he spoke: “Long is the way, but short the hours of daylight left, and my door is open to strangers.” He enforced his words by a look, and again invited them. They accepted the offer and dissembled their divinity. They passed beneath the old man’s roof, begrimed with black smoke; a little fire was glimmering in the log of yesterday. He knelt and blew up the flames with his breath, and drawing forth the stumps of torches he chopped them up. Two pipkins stood on the fire; the lesser contained beans, the other kitchen herbs; both boiled, each under the pressure of its lid. While he waited, he served out red wine with shaky hand. The god of the sea received the first cup. When he had drained it, “Now serve the drink,” said he, “to Jupiter in order.” At the word Jupiter the old man paled. When he recovered himself, he sacrificed the ox that ploughed his poor land, and he roasted it in a great fire; and the wine which s a boy he had laid up in his early years, he brought forth stored in its smoky jar. And straightway they reclined on mattresses stuffed with river sedge and covered with linen, but lowly still. The table shone, now with the viands, now with the wine set down on it: the bowl was of red earthenware, the cups were beechen wood. Quoth Jupiter: “If thou has any fancy, choose: all will be thine.” The clam old man thus spoke: “I had a dear wife, whose love I won in the flower of early youth. Where is she now? you ask. The urn her ashes holds. To her I swore, an called you gods to witness, ‘Thou shalt be my only spouse.’ I gave my word, and I keep it. But a different wish is mine: I would be, not a husband, but a father.” All the gods assented; all took their stand at the bullock’s hide – I am ashamed to describe what followed – then they covered the reeking hide by throwing earth on it: when ten months had passed, a boy was born. Him Hyrieus called Urion on account of the mode of his begetting: the first letter of his name has lost its ancient sound. He grew to an enormous size. Latin Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 195
ORION: Jove, Neptune, and Mercury came as guests to King Hyrieus in Thrace. Since they were received hospitably by him, they promised him whatever he should ask for. He asked for children. Mercury brought out the hide of the bull which Hyrieus had sacrificed to them; they urinated in it, and buried it in the earth, and from it Orion was born. When he tried to violate Diana, she killed him. Later he was placed by Jove among the stars, and called Orion. Latin Text
♠ Hyginus, De Astronomia 2.34.1
ORION: Hesiod calls him the son of Neptune by Euryale, daughter of Minos. He had the ability of running over the waves as if on land, just as it is said that Iphiclus could run over standing grain and not bruise it. Latin Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 9.2.12
Hyria is the scene of the myth of Hyrieus, and of the birth of Orion, of which Pindar speaks in his dithyrambs; it is situated near Aulis. Greek Text
♠ Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library) 1.4.3
And Artemis slew Orion in Delos. They say that he was of gigantic stature and born of the earth; but Pherecydes says that he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon bestowed on him the power of striding across the sea. He first married Side, whom Hera cast into Hades because she rivalled herself in beauty. Afterwards he went to Chios and wooed Merope, daughter of Oenopion. But Oenopion made him drunk, put out his eyes as he slept, and cast him on the beach. But he went to the smithy of Hephaestus, and snatching up a lad set him on his shoulders and bade him lead him to the sunrise. Being come thither he was healed by the sun’s rays, and having recovered his sight he hastened with all speed against Oenopion. Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.731
Orion wander’d in the woods for love. Latin Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, April 2023
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