HYADES, "the rainy ones," a group of five stars in the head of the constellation Taurus. In mythology they were maidens (their number and parentage vary in different accounts) who nursed the infant Dionysus, and as a reward were translated to heaven and placed among the stars (Hyginus, Poet. astron. ii. 2 I). According to another version they were sisters, whose brother Hyas was killed while hunting (Ovid, Fasti, v. 165; Hyginus, Fab. 192). They lamented him so bitterly that Zeus, out of compassion, changed them into stars—five into the Hyades, the remainder into the Pleiades. Their name is derived from the fact that the rainy season commenced when they rose at the same time as the sun (May 7-21) . The Romans derived the name from Hys (vs, pig), and translated it by Suculae (Cicero, De nat. dear., ii. 43).