ORION
Real Name
: Urion (original spelling)Occupation: Warrior, Hunter
Legal Status: Citizen of Ancient Greece
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Orion except as a mythological character.
Other Aliases: None known
Place of Birth: Unrevealed, possibly Athens, Greece
Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Poseidon (father), Euryale (mother, deceased), Chrysaor (half-brother), Pegasus ("half-sister") Zeus, Hades (uncles), Hera, Demeter, Hestia (paternal aunts), Medusa, Stheno (maternal aunts, deceased), Side (wife, deceased), Hyrieus (father-in-law, deceased)
Group Affiliations: ally of Artemis
Base of Operations: Mobile
First Appearance: Forensic Files, Episode: "Sign of the Zodiac"
History: Orion is the son of Poseidon, the Olympian god of the sea
and Euryale, who was among the Gorgons, minor goddesses who attended Athena, the
goddess of wisdom. However, Athena discovered the Gorgons had dallied with
Poseidon in her temple and cursed them, stripping them of their beauty. Orion
and Chrysaor, Poseidon's sons by Euryale and Medusa, were spared the insult of Athena's
wrath and grew to extraordinary stature as adults. The Gorgons meanwhile
retreated from Olympus, the home of the gods, for Libya where their horrible
looks turned men to stone. ( In another legend, Orion is also
alternately called the grandson of King Minos of Crete by his daughter Euryale;
this alternate version is unconfirmed.) As an adult, Orion grew up to become a
bold hunter.
According to legend, Orion is
alternately called the son of King Hyrieus of Boetian Hyria (now part of modern
Greece). Three of the Olympian gods, Zeus, Poseidon and
Hermes
were traveling through Hyria and were welcomed by Hyrieus as his guests,
hospitably entertaining them with food, wine and gifts. Pleased with his
hospitality, Zeus offered Hyrieus any boon he requested and although he had a
daughter, Hyrieus desired a suitable heir for his throne. Poseidon told him to
sacrifice a bull to the gods and to bury it afterward where upon Orion soon
emerged. However, the later version to the story is that Orion married Side, the
daughter of Hyrieus, and became his heir to the throne. However, Side became
very vain and soon declared herself more beautiful than Hera, the Queen of the
Olympian Gods. For the insult, Hera exiled Side to the underworld.
Orion then tried to woo Merope, the
daughter of King Oenopion of Chios, who took it upon himself to stall and delay
their wedding. One night, Orion seduced Merope, and Oenopion blinded him for his
presumption, driving him from the island afterward. With Poseidon's help, Orion
made his way to Lemnos where the
Hephaestus
kept his forge. Possibly instructed by Poseidon and out of pity, Hephaestus gave
Orion the aide of his animated servant, Cedalion, to serve as his guide. Cedalion
helped Orion to travel east for Rhodes to find
Helios,
the god of the sun, who was able to mystically restore Orion's sight. Orion then
hurriedly returned to Chios to have his revenge on Oenopion, but the wily king
had himself hidden by his servants in an underground chamber which ironically
had been created by Hephaestus as a gift from Poseidon. Unable to find his
enemy, Orion eventually gave up on his vengeance and traveled to Crete for a
hunting expedition.
In Crete, Orion became friends with
Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. According to one legend, he boasted to Artemis
that he could hunt and kill any animal on Earth. For that claim,
Gaea
sent a great scorpion to face which stung him and killed him, but Artemis must
have cured him or the reports of his death were erroneous. Artemis actually so
enjoyed their companionship that she decided to revoke her vow of remaining a
virgin in order to marry him. Her brother, Apollo, however, decided to help her
keep to her vow. One day as Orion was swimming out at sea, Apollo caught sight
of his head in the water, and pointed out the unrecognizable object to Artemis,
wagering that she could not hit it with an arrow. Artemis was able to strike the
object, but she was afterward horrified when Orion's lifeless body floated
ashore. She designated the constellation Orion in his honor although later myths
claim she physically lifted the image to the skies to become the stars. It is
unrevealed if Artemis ever learned of Apollo's duplicity in Orion's death.
Upon his death, Orion was allowed
ever-lasting life in the Elysian Fields, a region of the underworld set aside
for the favored of the gods. In recent years, a Manhattan serial killer named
Heriberto "Eddie" Seda terrorized the New York City area with a series
of Zodiac-based murders and called himself, the Zodiac Killer, even going as far
as to take false credit for another Zodiac Killer thirty years prior in San
Francisco. In his letters taunting the police, a tactic copied from the original
killer, Seda claimed he could only be caught by Orion and the Pleiades,
referring to their stars in the skies over Earth. To end Seda's boasting, Artemis
petitioned Hades
to allow Orion to return to Earth in exchange for Seda in the underworld. Orion
afterward briefly returned to Earth and tracked down Seda ahead of the
authorities, marking him on behalf
of Hades for trying to corrupt the Zodiac.
Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 230 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Strength Level: Orion possesses extraordinary (but not superhuman) strength enabling him to lift (press) almost 1,000 pounds under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Orion possesses extraordinary physical
attributes above most human beings due to his godly heritage, granting him incredible strength, stamina,
reflexes and resistance to harm. He is also an exceptional swimmer due to his
godly attributes and can dive deeper than most human beings and hold his breath
much longer under water due to his more efficient physiology. According to some
myths, he was capable of walking on water, but this may be a hyperbole.
Abilities: Orion is an exceptional hunter and warrior trained in both
armed and unarmed combat.
Weapons: Orion is proficient with a sword, spear and bow and arrow.
Comments: Orion has yet to appear in Marvel or DC Comics.
In Greek Mythology, Hyrieus sacrificed a bull and buried it, whereupon the gods urinated upon it to create Orion, but this seems to be some sort of corruption of the myth and the name "Urion."
The myth of Orion, though widely known, never assumed a canonical form of being treated by a single poet. It survives in a great many variant forms, especially among late and obscure Classical writers, such as Homer, Apollodorus and Hyginus.
Clarifications: Orion is not to be confused with:
Last updated: 07/31/11