Orion: the hunter who can never catch the Scorpion
The Greeks wrote an eternal chase into the turning of the sky.
1The easiest constellation to spot in the winter sky is Orion: three bright stars in a line form the hunter's belt, with brilliant stars above and below. In Greek myth he was Orion, son of the sea god and the greatest of hunters.
2Boasting that he would hunt every animal on Earth, Orion angered the goddess Gaia, who sent a scorpion that stung him to death. The gods raised both hunter and scorpion to the sky — but placed them at opposite ends of the heavens. When Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west; the chase never ends.
3Next winter, find the three belt stars, then follow the belt toward the southeast to Sirius, one of the brightest stars in the sky — the hunter, out with his faithful dog.
Scorpius rises as Orion sets — the sky's own ending to the myth.