Hyas
Hunter whose death from a lion or boar caused such grief in his sisters that they were transformed into the Hyades star cluster
The Legend of Hyas
Hyas was a young hunter, son of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Aethra or Pleione. He was a devoted and skilled hunter, but met his end when he was killed by a wild animal, variously described as a lion, a boar, or a serpent, depending on the source. His sisters, the Hyades, were so devastated by grief at his death that they wept ceaselessly, and the gods took pity on them by placing them among the stars as the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. The rising of the Hyades was associated with the rainy season in Greece, and ancient writers connected their name with the Greek word for rain, hyein, linking the sisters' eternal tears to the seasonal rains. Hyas's death thus provided the mythological explanation for both a prominent star cluster and the annual weather pattern that governed agricultural life in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Parents
Atlas and Aethra
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Hyades star cluster was believed to bring rain because the sisters were still weeping for their dead brother Hyas
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