5 includes (i) Aesyle (or Phaisyle), Coronis, Cleeia (or Cleis),Phaeo and Eudora or (ii) Aesyle (or Phaisyle), Coronis, Eudora, Ambrosia andPolyxo or (iii)Pytho,Synecho,Baccho,Cardie andNiseis
ThePleiades (/ˈpliːədiːz,ˈpleɪ-,ˈplaɪ-/;[1]Ancient Greek:Πλειάδες,pronounced[pleːádes]) were the seven sister-nymphs, companions ofArtemis, the goddess of the hunt.[2] Together with their sisters, theHyades, they were sometimes called the Atlantides, Dodonides, orNysiades, nursemaids and teachers of the infantDionysus. The Pleiades were thought to have been translated to the night sky as a cluster of stars, thePleiades, and were associated with rain.
The name Pleiades ostensibly derived from the name of their mother,Pleione, effectively meaning "daughters of Pleione". However, etymologically, the name ofthe star-cluster likely came first, and Pleione's name indicated that she was the mother of the Pleiades.[3] According to another suggestionPleiades derived from πλεῖν (plein, "to sail") because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in theMediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with theirheliacal rising".[4]
The Pleiades' parents were theTitanAtlas[5] and theOceanidPleione[6] born onMount Cyllene. In some accounts, their mother was calledAethra, another Oceanid.[7] Aside from the above-mentioned sisters (the Hyades), the Pleiades' other siblings wereHyas and the nymphCalypso who was famous in the tale ofOdysseus. Sometimes they were related as half-sisters to theHesperides, nymphs of the morning star.
Several of the most prominent male Olympian gods (includingZeus,Poseidon, andAres) engaged in affairs with the seven heavenly sisters. These relationships resulted in the birth of their children.
Maia, eldest[8] of the seven Pleiades, was mother ofHermes by Zeus.[9]
Merope, youngest of the Pleiades.[19] In other mythic contexts, she marriedSisyphus[20] and, becoming mortal, faded away. Merope bore Sisyphus several sons includingGlaucus.[21]
After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders,Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars to comfort their father. Theconstellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.
One of the most memorable myths involving the Pleiades is the story of how these sisters literally became stars, theircatasterism. According to some versions of the tale, all seven sisters killed themselves because they were so saddened by either the fate of their father, Atlas, or the loss of their siblings, the Hyades. In turn, Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky. There these seven stars formed the star cluster known thereafter as the Pleiades.
The Greek poetHesiod mentions the Pleiades several times in hisWorks and Days. As the Pleiades are primarily winter stars, they feature prominently in the ancient agricultural calendar. Here is a bit of advice from Hesiod:
And if longing seizes you for sailing the stormy seas, when the Pleiades flee mighty Orion and plunge into the misty deep and all the gusty winds are raging, then do not keep your ship on the wine-dark sea but, as I bid you, remember to work the land.
— Works and Days 618–623
The Pleiades would "flee mighty Orion and plunge into the misty deep" as they set in the West, which they would begin to do just before dawn during October–November, a good time of the year to lay up your ship after the fine summer weather and "remember to work the land"; in Mediterranean agriculture autumn is the time to plough and sow.
The poetSappho mentions the Pleiades in one of her poems:
The moon has gone The Pleiades gone In dead of night Time passes on I lie alone
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm offire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
The loss of one of the sisters, Merope, in some myths may reflect an astronomical event wherein one of the stars in thePleiades star cluster disappeared from view by the naked eye.[22][23]
Pleiades and Orion are mentioned in theBook of Job:
"Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?"
Although most accounts are uniform as to the number, names, and main myths concerning the Pleiades, the mythological information recorded by ascholiast onTheocritus' Idylls with reference toCallimachus has nothing in common with the traditional version.[24] According to it, the Pleiades were daughters of anAmazonian queen; their names were Maia, Coccymo, Glaucia, Protis, Parthenia, Stonychia, and Lampado. They were credited with inventing ritual dances and nighttime festivals.
Grimal, Pierre,The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.ISBN978-0-631-20102-1.
Hard, Robin (2004),The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae inApollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.ISBN978-0-87220-821-6.
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