How Orion Found His Sight

Neptune, the burly old god of the sea, had a son named Orion who was almost as fond of the woods as he was of the ocean. From the time when Orion was old enough to catch a sea horse and ride on its back to shore, he would be gone from his home in the depths of the sea for days at a time. When Neptune blew his conch shell to call the runaway home, Orion would return regretfully, telling tales of the bear he had seen in the forest or the comb of wild honey he had found in an old oak tree.

Neptune wanted Orion to be happy, so he finally granted him the ability to wade as far and as deep as he liked. No one had ever been able to wade through the fathomless ocean before, but Orion could be seen any day, his dark head showing above the surface, his feet paddling beneath without touching the bottom. He no longer had to rely on his father's chariot or the dolphins or the sea horses to carry him to shore.

So Orion began spending much of his time on land, and as he grew into a youth, he became a mighty hunter. His arrows seemed enchanted by Diana, so swift and sure they were. Every day Orion bagged great spoils of game and deer.

One day, as he made his way through the forest with a mighty bear he had just slain over his shoulder, he came suddenly upon a clearing. In its midst stood a fair white castle, its towers reaching above the pine trees toward the sky. It was surrounded by a great wall, and when Orion approached and asked the gatekeeper why it was so fortified, he was told that the king of that country who lived in it was in constant terror of wild beasts.

"He would give half of his kingdom to whoever could rid the forest of its ravening beasts," the gatekeeper told Orion.

As Orion listened, he glanced up at a window of one of the castle towers and saw the face of the king's daughter, Merope, looking down at him. Hers was a bright face, with blue eyes and smiling lips framed in golden hair that fell like a shower and wrapped around her like a cloak. Orion delighted in the thought that Merope was smiling at him, though her eyes were really looking beyond this uncouth son of the sea, to the shores of Corinth where heroes set sail for adventures.

"Would the king, by any chance, give his daughter Merope to the hunter who rids the forest of wild beasts?" Orion asked.

The gatekeeper looked at Orion's shaggy hair, bare feet, and mantle of lion's skin. He turned away to hide a smile as he answered, "One could ask the king."

Orion returned to the deep places where the night was made terrible by the cries of beasts of prey that hunted men. Neptune did not see his son for many moons. Orion shot lions and wrestled single-handed with bears. He strangled great snakes with his own brawny hands and hunted the wolf and the tiger with his spear. When the forest was rid of the pest of man-eating creatures, Orion returned to the castle in the clearing, not waiting to wash the gore from his hands and garments, and presented himself to the king.

"The forest is free of wild beasts that kill, O King," Orion said. "You may tear down your ramparts and walk in safety among the trees. As my reward, I ask for the hand of your daughter, Merope. I would take her home to my palace of coral and shell in Neptune's kingdom. If you refuse, I will take her by force."

The king was speechless. Then, realizing the boon this son of the sea was asking, he seemed to have no words for his scorn. He raised his scepter in anger and struck Orion's eyes. "Begone from my court, boaster," he commanded.

Orion rose from kneeling at the foot of the throne and put his hands to his eyes, for the room seemed suddenly as dark as night. He tried to find the door but stumbled, groping until attendants had to take his hands and lead him outside. They mocked him as they pushed him through the palace gate and watched this mighty hunter, who had the strength of the sea in his limbs, stagger down the road like a blind beggar.

Orion was now sightless. The king, for his presumption in asking for Merope, had struck him blind.

Without sun by day or moon by night, Orion wandered up and down the earth, asking everyone he met the way to find the light again.

Once he came to a spot in the woods where he heard many soft footsteps dancing on the moss to the sound of merry piping. Orion stretched out his arms as he felt his way nearer to the Hamadryads, those gay creatures of the forest who played all day with Pan and his tunes.

"Can you direct me to Apollo, who drives the chariot of the sun?" Orion asked.

"Oh, no," the Hamadryads answered, scattering at the sight of the blind wayfarer. "We seldom see Apollo, for he doesn't like the music Pan plays on his pipes."

So Orion stumbled on, and in his wanderings he heard the clash and din of battle as two armies met in mortal combat on the edge of a city. War chariots crashed by him, and he heard shield striking shield, and the groans of heroes who fell wounded to death.

"These fighters must know the way to the light," Orion thought, and sheltering beside a column, he cried out to one warrior, "Have you seen Apollo, driving the chariot of the sun, pass this way lately?"

"No," the man replied. "Apollo avoids the battlefield. We cannot direct you to the god of light."

So Orion wandered on in his darkness until he came at last to the island of Lemnos. As he stumbled along a rocky road, the sharp ringing of hammers beating on metal came to his ears.

"There must be a smithy close by," Orion thought, "a place as black and ugly as the world my blindness makes for me. I have heard tales of the Cyclopes, with only one eye each, who spend their lives under the mountains shaping thunderbolts at their forges. Their master is the ill-shaped Vulcan, despised of the gods. There is little use following the sound of a hammer."

But against his will, Orion kept on. There was a call in the ringing of the hammer that drew him faster than the merrymaking of Pan or the sound of battle. Soon the heat of the forge fire touched his face, telling Orion he had reached the doorway of Vulcan's smithy at the foot of the mountain. He asked again, "Can you tell me the way to Apollo, who drives the chariot of the sun?"

How surprised he was to hear Vulcan reply, "Apollo is here. We are sending some forgings of gold to his palace, and he will take you with him to the sun, blind Orion."

That was a thrilling ride for Orion, away from the darkness he had walked in so long on the earth, and up along the road of stars that led to the sun.

Apollo drove the chariot himself, and when they came to the stately gold columns that guarded the entrance to his palace, he told Orion to look straight at the blazing light of the sun. As he looked, Orion's blindness passed. He opened his eyes and could see again.

The myths say that Orion never left the sky after that. The gods changed him into a giant, with a wide hunting belt, a sword, a lion's-skin mantle, and a club made all of stars. And they even brought Sirius, his faithful hunting dog, to follow his master forever through the heavens.