SCORPIO ("the Scorpion"), in astronomy, the 8th sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol ♏︎. It is also a constellation, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.), and catalogued by Ptolemy (24 stars), Tycho Brahe (10), Hevelius (20). The Greeks fabled that Orion having boasted to Diana and Latona that he would kill every animal on the earth, these goddesses sent a poisonous reptile—a scorpion—which stung him so that he died. Jupiter raised the scorpion to heaven, and afterwards, at Diana's request, did the same for Orion. The chief star in this constellation α Scorpii or Antares, a reddish star of the first magnitude, accompanied by a green companion of the seventh magnitude. μ Scorpii is a spectroscopic binary; T Nova Scorpii is a “new” star discovered in 1860 by G. F. Auwers in the cluster Messier 80.