Their number varies from three in the earliest sources to fifteen in the late ones. The names are also variable, according to the mythographer, and include:
Comparative table of Hyades' names, number and family
The main myth concerning them is envisioned to account for their collective name and to provide anetiology for their weepy raininess: Hyas was killed in a hunting accident and the Hyades wept from their grief.[9] They were changed into acluster of stars, the Hyades, set in the head ofTaurus.[10]
The Greeks believed that theheliacal rising and setting of the Hyades star cluster were always attended with rain, hence the association of the Hyades (sisters of Hyas) and the Hyades (daughters of ocean) with the constellation of the Hyades (rainy ones).[5][11][12]
The Hyades are also thought to have been the tutors ofDionysus, in some tellings of the latter's infancy,[3] and as such are equated with theNysiads, the nymphs who are also believed to have cared for Dionysus,[13] as well as with other reputed nurses of the god—the Lamides,[14] the Dodonides[5] and the nymphs ofNaxos.[15] Some sources relate that they were subject to aging, but Dionysus, to express his gratitude for having raised him, askedMedea to restore their youth.[16][17][18]
In Tennyson's poem, Ulysses recalls his travels of old:
"I cannot rest from travel: I will drink -Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd -Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those - That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when -Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades -Vext the dim sea ..."[19]
^"Taurus' face gleams with seven rays of fire, which Greek sailors call Hyades from their rain-word." (Ovid,Fasti 5.164). In Ancient Greek, "to rain" ishyein.
^Cicero,De Natura Deorum 2.43.111; he also points out that the Romans wrongly refer to the Hyades asSuculae (Piglets), as though the name Hyades was derived fromhys "sow", while it actually derives fromhyein "to rain"
Gaius Julius Hyginus,Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Suida,Suda Encyclopedia translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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