 The margin of the Empress Eudocia 's copy of the Iliad has a note summarizing a Hellenistic poet who tells a different story of Orion 's birth . Here the gods Zeus , Hermes and Poseidon come to visit Hyrieus of Tanagra , who roasts a whole bull for them . When they offer him a favor , he asks for the birth of sons . The gods take the bull 's hide and ejaculate or urinate into it and bury it in the earth , then tell him to dig it up ten months later . When he does , he finds Orion ; this explains why Orion is earthborn . 
