Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/167

 ster in a swamp, a poisonous scorpion slipped up and stung him on the heel. The wound proved fatal, although he was afterward given a constellation as if in atonement for the rather mean advantage taken of so brave a hunter.

But the scorpion was also honored in the same way, only he travels across the sky in the summer months while Orion is seen during the winter. Thus the two are considerately placed so that they do not shine above the earth in the same season.

The constellation of the Scorpion lies southeast of Libra, the Scales, and is the ninth and most brilliant in the zodiac. The gigantic and clearly marked star design on his figure shows that the creature's head and outstretched claws extend upward and toward the west; the upraised tail, curving through the Milky Way and close to the horizon, lies south and eastward; while his feet touch the fainter stars to the right and left. In the vicinity of his heart lies a star so large and red and beautiful that it was named "Antares," which means "the rival of Ares" (the planet Mars). This star so impressed the ancient people of Greece that they built a temple in honor of it, where they might gaze upon it in solitude and worship it as if it were enthroned. This temple is one of the oldest found in Greece.

Pease, with the aid of the interferometer on the great 101-inch telescope on Mount Wilson, has measured the diameter of Antares and has found it to be a very enormous red sun. This figure taken in connection with the best determined value of its distance, indi-