Orion by Jeanette Winterson

A brief review written by Tünde Biró-Ambrus

When I first read the title of this story I somehow suspected that it would tell me about
the constellation called ‘Orion’. Because of the fact that I did not have any prior knowledge on
the story of Orion, I got curious to know what this story was going to reveal. In the first part of
the story we read about astronomical facts: ”Every 200,000 years or so, the individual stars
within each constellation shift position. That is, they are shifting all the time, but more subtly
than any tracker dog of ours can follow.” After this astronomical description, we get to know
one of our main characters, Orion, who is described quite vividly: he was a ”mighty hunter”, he
”was so tall that he could walk along the sea bed without wetting his hair”, he was ”so strong he
could part a mountain”. The story also reveals the fact that he met Artemis, and that ”they were
both hunters and both gods”.

This introductory part is followed by introducing our other main character, Artemis,
who is the daughter of King Zeus, and who differs from other girls, because she does not want to
get married. Her only desire is to hunt. Therefore, with the permission of his father, she goes
wandering in the woods. She envies men for their freedom, she wants to be one of them: a hero.
As the story goes on, it seems like she is in a crysis of identity, feels like she cannot find her
place in the world: ”She realised that the only war worth fighting was the one that raged within;
the rest were all diversions.” As she kept wandering, she found peace: ”In her restlessness she
found peace. Then Orion came.” The very last sentence from this paragraph warns us, that
something significant will happen, either bad or good, we do not know it yet.

The next paragraph tells us about how Orion and Artemis met. As she went for getting
some water, Orion walks into her camp with”his right eye patched and his left arm in a splint”.
When Artemis returns, a shocking scene awaits her: ”this huge rag of a man eating her goat,
raw.” The savagery of this scene creates a very negative feeling in the reader. At this point of
reading the story we can suppose that something bad will happen, since Orion is described rather
in a negative way. For instance, when he invites Artemis for a walk, although she did not want to
go, she accepted his offer, only because she was afraid of him: ”His reputation hung about him
like bad breath.”

We get to know Orion more and more, he travelled the world, he had seen everything, he
had gone through plenty of adventures: ”There was nowhere he hadn’t been, nothing he hadn’t
seen. He was faster than a hare, stronger than a pair of bulls.”Artemis’s words: ”You smell”
shows us that she did not like him. As they talk by the fire, it seems like Artemis overtook her
fear, and she speaks quickly, and tells Orion things that she has never told anyone. Then, an
extremely unpredicted thing happens: Orion rapes her and falls asleep. This unfortunate event is
described in a way, that has a very shocking effect on those who read this story. After Orion falls
asleep, without any planning, she kills him with a scorpion. I must admit that this part was very
surprising, and cruel at the same time. Killing Orion in his sleep I think was a rather coward act,
and cruel at the same time. But in a way she gave him back what she got, so in every reader’s
mind her act seems fair.

Artemis, lying next to Orion’s body, is starting to realize, that every single act has an
effect on her life, so does this act of her. She feels like she has been sleeping and now these
unfortunate events made her awake. It also made her realise that life is ridiculously short and that
everything will fade as time goes by: ”Monuments and cities would fade away like the people
who had built them. No resting place or palace could survive the light years that lay ahead.”
After recognizing this, she waits until the sun rises, and covers Orion’s body with rocks, creating
a high heap. As she is covering Orion’s body, she gets soaked with rain, her hands start bleeding
and she gets hungry. This shows that although she was humiliated and cruelly raped by him, she
respectfully buries him, putting a lot of effort in the burial process. Somehow these terrible series
of acts opened her eyes, she became self-conscious. As she walks away, leaving these events
behind, she doesn’t look back, this way she is putting her past behind: ”She stood up and in the
getting-dark walked away. Not looking behind her but conscious of her feet shaping themselves
in the sand.”

In the final paragraph, the writer discusses about Orion’s fate. He is ”dead but not
forgotten”, since for his acts he was punished in hell and after that the gods placed him in the
heavens so that everyone can see him. The writer closes the story with astronomical descriptions
of the constellation itself, and other constellations that Orion is surrounded with (Canis Major,
Canis Minor, Sirius) calling them his dogs. She also notes that Orion is not always visible, but
we may see it mainly in November, which is the month of Scorpio.

This story is based on the Greek myth of Orion, who was a great hunter, and also
Artemis, who is a goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology. Jeanette Winterson rewrites this
myth and ‘modernise’ it, transforming it into a modern story. There are many shocking scenes,
like rape and murder, but these are present in the modern world as well. Artemis could be any
young woman from the modern world, who is disrespected and humiliated by a man. A man,
who was trying to show his power of masculinity over her by raping her. Artemis, being a
powerful woman, goes against the norms since she does not want to get married. Orion, on the
other hand is also a powerful man, who feels like his masculinity is jeopardized by this powerful
woman, and wants to show his dominance over her by raping her. Artemis takes her revenge and
kills him with a scorpion, but after that it seems like she feels no regret. She accepts that
everything happens for a reason, and she is positive about her future. She also realizes that our
acts shape us in an unpredicted way and they can completely change our future. As for Orion, he
also paid for his sins, and the gods were merciful with him, and took him in heaven. After all,
both of the characters found their path to a better future.

Overall, my final thought on the story is that it delivers a very important message for the
readers, especially for women, who are in search of their identity: be who you are, accept who
you are, and do not let your past determine your future.