Orion (mythology) in the context of "Eponymous"

An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is named. Adjectives derived from the word eponym include eponymous and eponymic.

Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovations, biological nomenclature, astronomical objects, works of art and media, and tribal names. Various orthographic conventions are used for eponyms.

Orion is a prominent set of stars visible during winter in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is one of the 88 modern constellations; it was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century AD/CE astronomer Ptolemy. It is named after a hunter in Greek mythology.

Orion is most prominent during winter evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, as are five other constellations that have stars in the Winter Hexagon asterism. Orion's two brightest stars, Rigel (β) and Betelgeuse (α), are both among the brightest stars in the night sky; both are supergiants and slightly variable. There are a further six stars brighter than magnitude 3.0, including three making the short straight line of the Orion's Belt asterism. Orion also hosts the radiant of the annual Orionids, the strongest meteor shower associated with Halley's Comet, and the Orion Nebula, one of the brightest nebulae in the sky.

Zanclus (Ancient Greek: Ζάγκλος) is the legendary first king of the Sicilian city of Messina. He is mentioned in an etiological passage by Diodorus of Sicily, and has become a symbol of Messina. In modern Italian, the form is given as Zanclo.

Gegenus is recorded as the father of Zanclus. Diodorus writes of Zanclus as the supposed eponym of "Zancle" (Ancient Greek: Ζάγκλη, romanized: Zágklē) (the ancient name for Messina). The giant Orion is said to have helped Zanclus in building the city and the harbor.

Dryas (Ancient Greek: Δρύας, gen. Δρύαντος, from δρῦς "oak") is the name of several figures in Greek mythology, including:

• Dryas, an Egyptian prince as one of the sons of King Aegyptus. His mother was the naiad Caliadne and thus full brother of Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes, Hermus, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromius, Polyctor and Chthonius. In some accounts, he could be a son of Aegyptus either by Eurryroe, daughter of the river-god Nilus, or Isaie, daughter of King Agenor of Tyre. Dryas suffered the same fate as his other brothers, save Lynceus, when they were slain on their wedding night by their wives who obeyed the command of their father King Danaus of Libya. He married the Danaid Hecabe or Eurydice, daughter of Danaus and the naiad Polyxo.
• Dryas, a Thracian prince as son of King Lycurgus, king of the Edoni in Thrace. He was killed when Lycurgus went insane and mistook him for a mature trunk of ivy, a plant holy to the god Dionysus, whose cult Lycurgus was attempting to extirpate.
• Dryas, father of the aforementioned Lycurgus, and thus grandfather of the above Dryas.
• Dryas, a leader of the Lapiths against the Centaurs, and a participant of the battle that began at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia, where he killed the Centaur Rhoetus, who had killed his fellow Lapiths Corythus and Euagrus just before that. In Iliad 1, Nestor numbers Dryas among an earlier generation of heroes of his youth, "the strongest men that Earth has bred, the strongest men against the strongest enemies, a savage mountain-dwelling tribe [i. e. the Centaurs] whom they utterly destroyed", and call him "shepherd of the people". No trace of such an oral tradition, which Homer's listeners would have recognized in Nestor's allusion, survived in literary epic.
• Dryas, son of Ares or of Iapetus.
• Dryas the seer, father of Munichus.
• Dryas, one of the suitors of Pallene, daughter of Sithon. He was killed by Cleitus, who then went on to marry Pallene.
• Dryas, father of Amphilochus, the husband of Alcinoe.
• Dryas, son of Orion, a chieftain from Tanagra. He brought 1000 archers with him to defend Thebes in the Seven against Thebes. Ares made use of the fact that Dryas shared his father's hate of Artemis and her followers, and turned him against Parthenopaeus and his Arcadian contingent. Upon killing Parthenopaeus, Dryas was himself felled by an unknown hand.
• Dryas, a Greek warrior killed during the Trojan War by Deiphobus.

Merope (/ˈmɛrəpiː/; Ancient Greek: Μερόπη Meropê) was a mortal princess in Greek mythology, who was loved by the hunter Orion and was his fiancée. She is called Haero by Parthenius of Nicaea.

In Greek mythology, Evanthes or Euanthes (Ancient Greek: Εὐανθής means "the richly blooming") may refer to two different individuals:

• Evanthes, son of Oenopion, son of Ariadne and Dionysus. His mother was probably the nymph Helice and his only sister was Merope (Aero) who was raped by the giant Orion. Together with his brothers, Talus, Melas, Salagus and Athamas, they followed their father when he sailed from Crete to settle in Chios. Other sources makes Euanthes a son of Dionysus and Ariadne and brother to Oenopion, Thoas, Staphylus, Latromis and Tauropolis. He was also said to be one the generals of Rhadamanthys who was presented by the later with the city of Maroneia. Euanthes had a son Maron who was encountered by Odysseus in Ismarus, land of the Ciconians.
• Evanthes, a Phrygian who fought on Aeneas' side in Italy. He was killed by Mezentius, king of the Etruscans.

In Greek mythology, Hyrieus (/ˈhɪriˌuːs/; Ancient Greek: Ὑριεύς) was the eponym of Hyria in Boeotia, where he dwelt and where Orion (see below) was born; some sources though place him either in Thrace or on Chios. Most accounts speak of him as a king, although Ovid and Nonnus portray him as a peasant.