The myths associated with Scorpio almost invariably also contain a reference to Orion, a Greek giant who was a hunter and the most handsome man in the world. By no means impervious to the charms of females, Orion was said to have such an enormous stature that he could walk on the bottom of the sea without getting his head wet. One such tale involves Eos, Goddess of Dawn and an inveterate collector of handsome young men. She invited him to spend the night with her and he happily accepted but later bragged of the conquest and also boasted that he was such a magnificent hunter, that he would exterminate all of the wild beasts of the Earth. Apollo...God of the Sun, who was responsible for guarding herds...persuaded Gaiaa, the Earth Goddess (or possibly Hera), to send a giant scorpion with impenetrable armor to sting Orion until the hunter was dead. Some variations state that the scorpion succeeded, while others maintain that Orion tried to escape by swimming out to sea, only to be shot by Artemis...Goddess of the Moon and Apollo's twin sister. Finding herself attracted to Orion, Artemis had fired her arrow in an attempt to kill the scorpion who was pursing the hunter. Being a magnificent shot, the Goddess struck the black head she saw bobbing in the water. Tragically, however, her target proved to be Orion instead of the scorpion and the hunter died instantly. Later, the grief-stricken Artemis placed Orion as a constellation among the stars, where he is eternally tracked by the giant scorpion. Although Orion and the scorpion appear together in this myth, the constellation of Orion is almost opposite to the constellation of Scorpio in the night sky...and it has been suggested that this was a divine precaution to forestall any heavenly continuation of the feud.

In a Greek fable, it is written that Orion boasted to Artemis and her mother, Leto...Goddess of Light...that he would kill every animal on the earth. Although Artemis was known to be a hunter herself, her divinity still offered protection to all creatures. Thus, Artemis and Leto sent a a poisonous reptile...a scorpion...to deal with Orion. The pair battled and the contest was apparently a lively one that caught the attention of Zeus, who later raised the scorpion to heaven and afterwards, at the request of Artemis, did the same for Orion...to serve as a reminder for mortals to curb their excessive pride. Yet another myth associated with this constellation tells that Orion had pursued one or all of the Pleides and Artemis sent the scorpion to kill him for his attempts to violate these women. Of course, the Pleides were not known for their purity or innocence in terms of physical encounters so quite why the Goddess might want to protect their long-lost virtue remains something of a mystery. Another legend states that it was Apollo who sent the scorpion to kill Orion because the God had become jealous of Artemis' attentions to the hunter. Later, in contrition for killing Orion, Apollo helped Artemis hang Orion's image in the night sky. However, the scorpion was also placed there and every time it appears on the horizon, Orion starts to sink into the other side of the sky, still running from his attacker.

One tale involving Scorpio but not Orion, is the story of Phaeton...mortal male offspring of Helios the Sun...who bragged to his friends about his parentage. Since they refused to believe him, Phaeton went to his father, who had earlier sworn by the River Styx to give Phaeton anything he should ask for. Phaeton wanted to drive his father's Sun Chariot for a day. Although Helios tried to dissuade his son, Phaeton was adamant. However, when the day arrived, Phaeton panicked and lost control of the white horses that drew the Chariot. First, the Earth grew chill as Phaeton flew too high and encountered the celestial scorpion...its deadly sting raised to strike. Alarmed, he dipped the Chariot too close, causing the vegetation to burn. By accident, Phaeton turned most of Africa into desert and darkened the skin of the Ethiopian nation until it was black. Eventually, Zeus was forced to intervene by striking the runaway Chariot with a lightning bolt to put an end to its rampage...and Phaeton plunged into the River Eridanos.