Pleiades- Greek GroupCollective"Daughters of Atlas"

The Seven Sisters

The Pleiades are the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. Their father was condemned by Zeus to hold up the heavens, and the sisters' placement among the stars brought them close to him. Before their transformation, the Pleiades were companions of Artemis, sharing the goddess's love of the wild. In some versions it was Artemis herself who begged Zeus to save them.

The Pursuit of Orion

The giant hunter Orion pursued the Pleiades across the earth. Some traditions say he desired the sisters themselves; others that he hunted their mother Pleione and the daughters fled with her. The chase went on until the sisters appealed to Zeus. He transformed them first into doves and then into stars, placing them in the night sky as a cluster. Orion, placed among the stars himself, chases the Pleiades across the heavens, never closing the distance.

Their rising in May signaled the beginning of the sailing season and summer planting; their setting in November marked the end of navigation and the onset of winter. Hesiod tells the farmer to harvest when the Pleiades rise and plow when they set.

Divine Unions

Though companions of the virgin Artemis, most of the Pleiades bore children to gods. Maia lay with Zeus in a cave on Mount Cyllene and bore Hermes. Electra bore Zeus two sons: Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojan kings, and Iasion, beloved of Demeter. Taygete bore Lacedaemon to Zeus, the ancestor of the Spartans. Only Merope married a mortal — the cunning Sisyphus of Corinth — and her star is said to shine faintest because she alone took no divine consort.