The Legend of Pleiades Pleiades: an open star cluster located within Taurus, the mythologies surrounding these stars often represent lost people. Temples have been erected and aligned with these stars and some cultures have considered them the center of the universe and the destination of the soul. Before the solar calendar was understood, the Pleiades marked the beginning of the year with their rise in the morning skies and the beginning of winter at their appearance in the evening. The Feast of All Souls marks this second date. Cultures using this calendar include the Polynesians, Mayas, Aztecs and various Native American tribes.
Mesopotamia: often represented as seven dots, and in later times as seven stars. The Pleiades cluster are associated with the seven sons of the goddess Ishara and her husband Dagan. They represented protection against evil demons through the use of incantations.
Egypt: the Egyptians called the month of November Athar-aye, the Month of the Pleiades. The Chaldeans and Israelites did the same thing. Within the Great Pyramid at Giza a tunnel directed toward the south corresponded precisely to the height of the meridian of the Pleiades whose passing through that opening, at midnight, marked the beginning of the year. See the Egyptian legend of Draco.
Greece: the seven daughters of Pleione, the sea nymph, and the Titan Atlas. Only six stars were visible within the star group. These six represented the daughters who were married to immortal gods. The seventh, Merope, was married to Sisyphus, a mortal. Out of shame, the light of her star is dim. One day as the sisters were traveling in Boeotia they were attacked by Orion. In their fright they prayed to Zeus to save them. In pity he turned the sisters into doves that flew up and circled in the sky. Orion chased them for seven years before he was finally killed by Artemis. Zeus placed them in the sky to the west of Orion where he could see them, but never catch them. Another interpretation of the Lost Pleiad names the star as Electra, the mother of Dardanus, the founder of Troy. Inconsolable at the suffering of her family during the Trojan War she made her way to the Arctic Circle where she wandered with her hair flowing down her back. Her occasional return is marked by the path of a comet through this part of the sky. Several cultures mark the presence of a seventh star within the group that apparently disappeared at about the time of the Trojan War. See the Greek legend of Orion.Back to the Constellations
