Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.
10 Orion and the Southern Celestial Hemisphere
Orion
Perhaps Orion is the most-identified group of stars, culturally speaking. The Chinese called the star pattern Shen, a supreme warrior, in India Skanda, a celestial general riding a peacock, Egyptians Osiris, and the North American Lakota Tribe the Hand or arm of a Lakota Chief. (1)
Even though the northern celestial hemisphere and some into the southern celestial hemisphere had been well-charted, albeit with a variety of constellations by different cultures, not as much had been done with the southern celestial hemisphere. Southern hemisphere explorers charted many of these constellations, and a number of them have survived to today. These include a toucan, peacock, triangle, and three constellations that make up parts of a ship. There are many wonderful constellation stories that are unknown to many. In what is New Zealand today, the ancient Maori Tribe noted a constellation they named Maui’s hook — what is today’s Scorpius. (1)
Scorpius, as the Maori Tribe called Maui’s hook, shows the shape of a fish hook that was made famous in the recent Disney cartoon, Moana. [ “ScorpiusCC” by Till Credner is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
