Orion. A mighty giant and hunter, famous for his beauty. Having come to Chios, he fell in love with Merope, the daughter of Oenopion; his treatment of the maiden so exasperated her father, that, with the assistance of Dionysus (Bacchus), he deprived the giant of his sight. Being informed by an oracle that he should recover his sight if he exposed his eyeballs to the rays of the rising sun, by following the sound of a Cyclops' hammer, he reached Lemnos, where he found Vulcan, who gave him Cedalion as a guide to the abode of the sun. After the recovery of his sight he lived as a hunter with Artemis (Diana). Orion was slain by Diana, or, as some say, by Jupiter, and placed among the stars, where he forms the most splendid of all the constellations, appearing as a giant wearing a lion's skin and a girdle, and wielding a club.
