SCORPIO ("THE

See also:

• SCORPION (Lat. Scorpio)

SCORPION")  , in astronomy, the 8th sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol 111 . It is also a constellation, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C . ), and catalogued by Ptolemy (24 stars), Tycho Brahe (1o), Hevelius (20) . The Greeks fabled that Orion having boasted to Diana and Latona that he would kill every animal on the earth, these goddesses sent a poisonous reptile—a scorpion —which stung him so that he died . Jupiter raised the scorpion to heaven, and afterwards, at Diana's request, did the same for Orion . The chief star in this constellation is a Scorpii or Antares, a reddish star of the first magnitude, accompanied by a green companion of the seventh magnitude . ,u Scorpii is a spectroscopic binary; T Nova Scorpii is a " new " star discovered in r86o by G . F . Auwers in the cluster Messier 80 .