Scorpions

         So right now i'm sitting at home watching this TV show  "One Tree Hill", and something that was said in the show reminded me of mythology class. In the show, two sisters are talking about a tattoo. One of the sisters, Taylor, has a tattoo of a Scorpion. She tells her sister "You wanna know why I really got the tattoo? When the scorpion's caught in a fire, it stings itself to death." The other sister, Haley, replies "That's a myth, actually." Taylor then responds, "Not in my life. When things get bad, I always find a way to make them worse."

        When I heard this, I almost thought that I heard it wrong. Even though it shouldn't surprise me at this point, I was amazed that something about mythology just fell into my lap. The idea of the scorpion stinging itself to death was intriguing, so I did a bit of research on it. It turns out that when scorpions react to severe heat, their metabolic process malfunctions and causes the scorpion to spasm, which can make it appear like the scorpion is stinging itself, while in reality it has just lost all control. Nevertheless, its still an interesting concept. I found it interesting how in the TV show, Haley says that its a myth, and acts as if it couldn't possibly be true just because its a myth. When looking online, I also found a few websites that said that the scorpion stinging itself was a myth, which meant it was absolutely false. I found it interesting how all of these people and Haley in the show thought that just because it was a myth, it meant that there was no truth behind it. I've learned from this class that there is truth behind mythology, and that every action has mythological truth behind it. It was also interesting how Taylor said when things get bad she always finds a way to make them worse. I've found that alot of Ovids stories have this theme. People challenge the gods or get into a sticky situation, and almost always things get worse. I think Taylor was right to realize that mythology could relate to her own life and she was right to make the comparison between a scorpion and herself. I guess she's a mythic detective without even realizing it.

       Also, when I began to think about scorpions, I thought about the constellation Scorpio. I began to research Scorpio, and realized that there are a few versions of the myth of the scorpion. On of the versions is that Orion boasted to Artemis and Leto that he could kill every animal on earth. So Artemis and Leto sent a Scorpion to deal with Orion. The two battled and Orion was killed by the scorpion. The battle caught the attention of Zeus, and he raised Scorpio into the heavens, and then later did the same to Artemis. So this is why Orion and Scorpio are both constellations in the sky, and it appears as if Scorpio is chasing Orion or vice versa depending on the time of year. In this way, the myth of Scorpio lives on whenever we see that constellation in the sky.