THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE STAR GIANT
A great many years ago the Greeks told beautiful stories about what they saw in the earth and in the sky and in the sea.
They said the Sun drove each day across the sky in a car of fire, and gave light and heat to men.
He always had a bow and arrows with him, and his arrows were the sunbeams.
When he shot them very hard and struck men with them, the men were said to be sun-struck, but when he let the arrows fall gently on the earth, they did only good.
The Sun was called Apollo.
He was said to be a beautiful young man with golden hair, and he made wonderful music on a kind of harp called a lyre.
Men loved him, but they were a little afraid of him, too; he was so bright and strong.
His sister was the Moon. Her name was Artemis, or Diana. She rode through the sky at night in a silver car, and she, too, had a bow and arrows.
Her bow was a silver bow, and her arrows were the moonbeams.
She loved hunting, and often at night she would come down to earth and roam through the woods with her bow in her hand and her arrows at her side or on her back.
In pictures she is always seen with a little new moon in her hair.
Artemis was so beautiful that men were afraid to look at her. It was said that if any man should look full at her he would lose his mind.
So when she came to those whom she did not wish to hurt, she covered herself with clouds.
For a time the good giant Orion helped Artemis in her hunting, for he too was a great hunter. Artemis loved him as well as she loved any one, but she was very cold and did not care much for anybody.
After a time Orion left her. He wanted to marry the daughter of a king in one of the islands of the sea. The king said that he might if he would drive all the wild beasts out of the island. Orion did this, but the king did not keep his word.
Instead of that, he put out the eyes of Orion, but Orion went to Apollo, and was made to see again.
Then Orion went back to help Artemis with her hunting, but Apollo did not like that and wished to get rid of him.
He did not wish, himself, to hurt Orion, so he made Artemis do it.
"Sister," he said to her one day, "some men say that you can shoot as well as I can, but we all know that is not so."
"I should like to know why it is not so!" said Artemis.
"Well, let us try," said Apollo. "Do you see that little black speck away out there in the sea?"
"Yes, I see it," said Artemis.
"Can you hit it?" asked Apollo.
"Indeed I can," said Artemis; and with that she let an arrow fly from her bow. It went straight through the black speck.
The black speck was the head of Orion. He was swimming back to Artemis from the country of the bad king.
The speck at once went under the water and was seen no more.
When Artemis found what she had done, she was very sad indeed. She could not bring Orion back to earth, but she took him up into the sky and put him among the stars, and there he is standing to this day.
If you will look up into the sky on any clear winter night, you can see him. Just before him is his dog. We call it the Dog Star.