Maia- Greek GodDeity · Nymph"Eldest of the Pleiades"

The Cave on Mount Cyllene

Maia was the eldest of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The Homeric Hymn describes her as a nymph of beautiful tresses who avoided the company of the gods. While her sisters drew divine lovers openly, Maia preferred the silence of a deep cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia.

Zeus came to her in the dark of night, while Hera and the other gods slept. No one saw him climb the mountain or enter the cave.

Birth of Hermes

Maia bore Hermes in the cave on Cyllene, on the fourth day of the month. The infant was born at dawn, and by midday he had crawled from his cradle, found a tortoise outside the cave, and fashioned the first lyre from its shell. By evening he had driven Apollo's sacred cattle from their pasture in Pieria clear across Greece and made them walk backward to hide their tracks. He slaughtered two of them by the river Alpheus and divided the meat into twelve portions for the twelve gods — counting himself among the Olympians, though he was less than a day old — then walked home to Cyllene and climbed back into his cradle. When Apollo tracked the theft to the cave, Maia told him her son was just a newborn who only wanted to sleep and nurse. Hermes played along, swaddled and wide-eyed — but Zeus, who saw through it all, was so amused he made the infant his herald.

After Hermes

Hermes brought the infant Arcas to his mother's cave after Callisto was turned into a bear — by Hera's jealousy or Artemis's wrath, depending on the source. Maia raised the child, and he grew up to become the eponymous king of Arcadia, the land below her mountain.

Like her sisters, Maia was placed among the stars. Zeus set the Pleiades in the sky as a constellation, ending the hunter Orion's long pursuit. Her star still bears her name in the cluster.