Galaxy/The codex of Cedalion

In Greek mythology, Cedalion (Ancient Greek Κηδαλίων) is a servant (or tutor) of Hephaestus on Lemnos who guides the blinded hunter Orion. Orion sets the youth on his shoulders and walks toward the sunrise; Helios restores his sight. Apollodorus leaves the guide unnamed; Hyginus and the astronomical tradition name Cedalion. Sophocles wrote a lost satyr play Cedalion.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Cedalion" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Guide to the sunrise

After Oenopion blinds Orion on Chios, the hunter comes to Hephaestus. Apollodorus says Orion set a lad on his shoulders and bade him lead toward the sunrise, where the sun's rays healed him. Hyginus' Astronomica names the guide Cedalion: Orion receives him from Vulcan on Lemnos, carries him east to Sol, and returns healed to seek vengeance.

An alternate strand makes Cedalion Hephaestus' tutor on Naxos, with whom Hera fosters the smith-god. Sophocles' satyr play Cedalion survives only in scraps; its plot may have been the blinding, the healing, or the fostering.

II.Homonym note

Cedalion is this Lemnian guide alone; the atlas suffix -orion anchors him to Orion's healing, not to unrelated smith-cult figures.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameKēdalion (Κηδαλίων)
Typemortal
Domainsguide to the sunrise · Orion's healing · Lemnos and Chios
SymbolsGuide on Orion's shoulders · Lemnos / Hephaestus' forge · Sunrise healing
Cult centersLemnos · Naxos (foster-tutor variant)
EtymologyGreek Κηδαλίων; traditional etymologies link kēdeuein "to take charge, care for" or, with Wilamowitz, a phallic sense of "to marry."
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