The brilliant white light of Rigel on Orion's foot shines in charming contrast to the pink-tinged Betelgeuse which lies upon his shoulder.
Rigel is a young star but not as young as Betelgeuse, for Betelgeuse, like ruddy Antares, is among the youngest of the stars.
"The scorched waters of Eridanus' tear-swollen flood
Welling beneath the foot of Orion."
—Aratus.
It has been many hundred million years since Rigel was as big and red as Betelgeuse now is. Rigel belongs to a group which includes the hottest of all the stars and even at a distance of at least 450 light years, it still appears so brilliant that it is one of our brightest stars. It has been estimated that in actual luminosity it exceeds our sun about 13,000 times.
A blue star of the 9th magnitude lies close beside Rigel. This little star may be seen with even a small telescope.
Just a little west of Rigel wanders a crooked line of stars, first toward Cetus, then southward toward the horizon. This is the "poor remains" of the river Eridanus. Aratus speaks of it as those "poor remains" because it represents what is left of the "amazed Eridanus" after Phæthon had, like a streaming comet, plunged into it and partly burned it up. Aratus also calls it "The River of Many Tears" because the Heliades, Phæthon's sisters, who were metamorphosed into poplar trees, "all the day stand round the tomb and weep" great amber tears.
This constellation, which is best seen directly in the south during September, is a tribute of respect to the grief of the Sungod who had gazed with horror at the wild flight of the sun-horses and the thunderbolt of Jupiter that had hurled his boy through the air. Touched by Apollo's remorse for allowing the youth to drive his horses, Jupiter drew the river to the heavens, thinking that it might be a consolation to Apollo, as he performed his daily task, to view the kindly river, now flecked with stars, which had once caught the "charred fragment" of Phæthon and "cooled it in his waters."