The Pleiades: Daughters of Atlas

In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. They were beautiful nymphs who served the goddess Artemis as companions and attendants.

The great hunter Orion encountered the sisters while they were playing in the forests of Boeotia and was overcome by their beauty. He pursued them relentlessly across the earth for five years. The sisters fled in terror, but Orion, being a giant and a skilled hunter, was tireless. Finally, exhausted and despairing, the sisters prayed to the gods for deliverance. Zeus heard their prayers and transformed them into doves. They flew into the sky and became the star cluster known as the Pleiades.

Orion was also placed in the sky as a constellation, doomed to pursue the Pleiades forever but never catch them. The Pleiades cluster, visible in the constellation of Taurus, has guided sailors and farmers for millennia. Their rising at dawn in spring marked the beginning of the sailing season in the Mediterranean, and their morning setting in autumn signaled the time to plow.

After the Titanomachy, Atlas was condemned to hold up the heavens on his shoulders. Some say this burden is reflected in the close grouping of his daughters in the sky, Each sister has her own myth: Maia became the mother of Hermes by Zeus; Electra was the mother of Dardanus, founder of Troy; and Merope married the mortal Sisyphus, causing her star to shine less brightly than her sisters.