Constellation Pleiades
The seven daughters of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione, pursued by Orion and transformed into a star cluster that has guided sailors and farmers for millennia.
The Meaning of Constellation Pleiades
The Pleiades were seven sisters: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. Their father Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky after the Titanomachy. Orion the hunter pursued the sisters relentlessly across the earth, and Zeus transformed them into doves, then placed them among the stars to escape him. Maia was the most distinguished sister, becoming mother of Hermes by Zeus in a cave on Mount Cyllene. Electra bore Dardanus, founder of the Trojan royal line. Merope alone married a mortal, Sisyphus, which is why her star shines faintest. Hesiod used the rising and setting of the Pleiades in Works and Days to mark the agricultural calendar — their appearance in May signalled the harvest season and their setting in November marked the time for ploughing.
Parents
Atlas, Pleione
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Subaru car company is named after the Pleiades — "Subaru" is the Japanese name for the cluster, and the logo shows six stars (one representing the merger that formed the company). The Pleiades appear in the mythology of virtually every culture on earth, from Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime to Lakota tradition, making them arguably the most universally storied object in the sky.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Pleiades
🌿 nymphSeven sisters transformed into stars
The Pleiades were seven sisters, daughters of Atlas and Pleione, who were placed among the stars as the star cluster that has guided sailors and farmers for millennia.
Pleione
🌿 nymphSea, sailing, flocks
Oceanid nymph and mother of the seven Pleiades star-cluster daughters
Callisto
💭 conceptAstronomy and mythology
A moon of Jupiter named after Callisto, the nymph companion of Artemis who was transformed into a bear and placed among the stars as the constellation Ursa Major
Muses
💭 conceptNine goddesses of arts and sciences
Nine sister goddesses who inspired all forms of art, literature, and knowledge. Every poet, musician, and thinker invoked the Muses before creating.
Niobe's Punishment
💭 conceptNarrative
The destruction of a queen's fourteen children by Apollo and Artemis for her boast of superiority to the goddess Leto
Catasterism
💭 conceptTransformation into a constellation
Catasterism was the process by which a mortal or creature was placed among the stars.
Uranus
💭 conceptAstronomy and mythology
The seventh planet from the Sun, named after Ouranos, the primordial Greek god of the sky and the earliest supreme deity in the mythological genealogy
Goddess of the Moon
💭 conceptMoon, night sky, lunar cycles
Selene drives her silver chariot across the night sky, illuminating the world with reflected light.
Venus
💭 conceptAstronomy and mythology
The second planet from the Sun and the brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love identified with the Greek Aphrodite
Goddess of the Hunt
💭 conceptHunting, wilderness, childbirth, the moon
Artemis roams the forests with her band of nymphs, protecting wild animals and punishing those who violate her sacred groves.
Goddess of Harvest
💭 conceptHarvest, agriculture, grain, fertility of the earth
Demeter controls the growth of crops and the fertility of the soil, and her grief governs the cycle of the seasons.
Goddess of Fate
💭 conceptFate, destiny, lifespan, inevitability
The Moirai — Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos — spin, measure, and cut the thread of every life.