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I was sitting out on the balcony with the family tonight. We just sat back and looked up at the night sky. There's less light pollution out here (though still a fair amount). You can see a lot of stars. More than I'm used to, anyway.
I sat facing Orion. I could make out not just his belt, but most of his sword. His head, too high up until you remember that he's kneeling. The point off to the side, his hand holding the bow. I could almost see it.
It made me think of the people who first imagined him. Living in the dark ages, before Nintendo. Before Atari, even. Looking up into the sky, playing a giant game of Connect The Dots, creating these characters, then animating them, finding the stories behind them. Not a new thought, but always wierdly impressive.
And then I saw that some of the stars were different. Some, unlike the others, were moving. They drifted across the sky in small groups, twinkling brightly, red and white sometimes flashing, sometimes gleaming steadily.
It made me wonder. If those ancient people, born before even comic books, could have seen those stars, what would they have made of them? I can only imagine...
I sat facing Orion. I could make out not just his belt, but most of his sword. His head, too high up until you remember that he's kneeling. The point off to the side, his hand holding the bow. I could almost see it.
It made me think of the people who first imagined him. Living in the dark ages, before Nintendo. Before Atari, even. Looking up into the sky, playing a giant game of Connect The Dots, creating these characters, then animating them, finding the stories behind them. Not a new thought, but always wierdly impressive.
And then I saw that some of the stars were different. Some, unlike the others, were moving. They drifted across the sky in small groups, twinkling brightly, red and white sometimes flashing, sometimes gleaming steadily.
It made me wonder. If those ancient people, born before even comic books, could have seen those stars, what would they have made of them? I can only imagine...
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Hrm... Funny, I'd always thought it was a bow and arrow he was holding. I'll probably still always see it that way. Oh well.
*giggles about one of the stars being named Betelgeuse*
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Although, yeah, I've found more sites that identify the curve there as a shield (usually lionskin).
Frankly, I'm not sure what a lionskin shield would do for you if you were facing down a bull (Orion is said to be hunting/being attacked by the next constellation over: Taurus).
In any case, I've traditionally heard that the stars "hanging off his belt" (shown in your pic as a dagger or something) were his sword, that he had a bow in his left hand, and that his right was reaching into a quiver. (And that he was kneeling to take aim, rather than cut off at the knees.) *shrug* I guess there are different versions.
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Click here to see the pic.