how did the tityus scorpion get its name?

J

Josh Perry

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Jun 15, 2011
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i dont know much about scorpions im a tarantula person lol. But i do know that there is a genus called tityus. I am a senior in highschool and i learned in mythology class that tityus was the first person to commit murder. So im just wondering what you all have to add to this.
BTW i dont know much about scorpions again lol so i will ask some preaty nooby questions =P
 
2nscorpx

2nscorpx

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Josh Perry said:
i dont know much about scorpions im a tarantula person lol. But i do know that there is a genus called tityus. I am a senior in highschool and i learned in mythology class that tityus was the first person to commit murder. So im just wondering what you all have to add to this.
BTW i dont know much about scorpions again lol so i will ask some preaty nooby questions =P
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Yes, Tityus is a mythological creature. He is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses and resides in the place known as the 'Abode of Accursed' in Hell. The etymology for Tityus is 'dark'.
 
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Michiel

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Tityus was the son of Zeus and supposedly his mother was Gaia. Because Zeus was everthing except monogamous,.he had to hide Tityus for his wife Hera, and Tityus was raised in secrecy by Gaia. Tityus killed someone and in turn he was eternally punished for this.

the first Tityus described was T.bahiensis (type species) and this is not a particularly large member of the genus, but maybe it was, in comparison with other known species at that time. I guess size caused Perty to use this name. I had to look some of the info up about the mythology when I wrote my species biography on T.obscurus for The Scorpion Files...:)
Sent from my GT-I9001
 
2nscorpx

2nscorpx

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Michiel said:
Tityus was the son of Zeus and supposedly his mother was Gaia. Because Zeus was everthing except monogamous,.he had to hide Tityus for his wife Hera, and Tityus was raised in secrecy by Gaia. Tityus killed someone and in turn he was eternally punished for this.

the first Tityus described was T.bahiensis (type species) and this is not a particularly large member of the genus, but maybe it was, in comparison with other known species at that time. I guess size caused Perty to use this name. I had to look some of the info up about the mythology when I wrote my species biography on T.obscurus for The Scorpion Files...:)
Sent from my GT-I9001
Click to expand...
Haha, Zeus is always having to try to hide his offspring from Hera! Michiel, it is interesting to know about T. bahiensis, very intersting.:)
 
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