PLEIADES, the constellation so called is in mythology the seven daughters of Atlas and PleIone, and sisters of the Hyades. Owing to their grief at the death of their sisters or at the suffer ings of their father, they were changed into stars. In another account, the Pleiades and their mother met the amorous hunter Orion (q.v.) in Boeotia; for five years he pursued them through the woods, until Zeus translated them all—Plefone and her daughters, Orion and his dog—to the sky. This is one of the few myths really astronomical in origin, for it is based on the relative positions of the constellations in the sky. The names of the sisters are Alcyone, Asterope, Electra, Kelaine, Maia, Merope, and Tay gete (Hesiod fr. 275 Rzach) ; one is always dim or invisible, be cause she is Electra mourning for Troy, or Merope, who is ashamed of having wedded a mortal, Sisyphus. All the Pleiades became the ancestresses of divine or heroic families. The spring rising and early winter setting of the Pleiades (Lat. V ergiliae) are
important dates to the farmer.
See H. J. Rose, Handbook of Greek Mythology (1928).
The stars are situated in the constellation Taurus. They are supposed to be referred to in the Old Testament (Job ix. g, xxxviii. 31). The brightest star is Alcyone (3rd magnitude); PleIone and Atlas are also of the 3rd magnitude. This group is physically connected, being distinguished from the background stars by community of proper motion. Photographs show a faint nebulosity filling the whole region; there is little doubt that this is rarefied matter made luminous by stimulation of the radiation of the hot stars comprised in it. The distance of the Pleiades is estimated at Ioo parsecs (300 light-years), but is not very certainly known. Alcyone and the other bright stars are of the hottest type of spectrum (Type B), and give out several hundred times as much light as the sun.