Orion, the Hunter

Orion was the son of the god Neptune and the nymph Euryale. Orion, the Hunter, was a man of great strength, and with that strength came an ego. His boastfulness and statements of ultimate strength led Gaia the Goddess of the Earth to prove his weakness and sent a scorpion to kill him. Now, in honor of that event, as Orion sets in the west, the Scorpion rises in the east. While the story of the constellation in the sky is Greek, the common names for Orion’s stars are Arabic. Betelgeuse, the bright red star at the shoulder, means "Armpit of the Central One". Bellatrix, the star at the Hunter’s other shoulder, means "Female Warrior". Rigel comes from the same root as Betelgeuse’s, originally "rijl Al-jauza," meaning the "foot" of al-jauza, the Arab’s "Central One". Saiph, means "Sword of the Giant," even though it marks the other foot of Orion. The three belt stars also bear Arabic names: Mintaka , the westernmost star in the belt, comes from the Arabic word for belt. Alnilam, the center star in the belt, means "a belt of pearls", and Alnitak, the eastern-most star, means "the girdle".