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The lyric poet Simonides of Ceos (c. 556–468 BC), is the first (datable) source to connect the name of the star-cluster with the seven daughters of Atlas. [19] The names of the seven Pleiades are first attested in a scholion on Pindar, which quotes three hexameter lines from an unattributed poem, probably from the Hesiodic corpus: [20]
The Hesperides are also listed as the daughters of Atlas [5] and Hesperis, [6] or of Phorcys and Ceto, [7] or of Zeus and Themis. [8] In a Roman literary source, the nymphs are simply said to be the daughters of Hesperus, embodiment of the "west". [9] The Garden of the Hesperides by Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1892.
According to some versions of the tale, all seven sisters killed themselves because they were so saddened by either the fate of their father, Atlas, or the loss of their siblings, the Hyades. In turn, Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky.
The brightest stars of the cluster are named the Seven Sisters in early Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone. Later, they were assigned parents, Pleione and Atlas. [18] As daughters of Atlas, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The following table gives details of the brightest stars in the cluster:
Atlas and the Hesperides by John Singer Sargent (1925).. The etymology of the name Atlas is uncertain. Virgil took pleasure in translating etymologies of Greek names by combining them with adjectives that explained them: for Atlas his adjective is durus, "hard, enduring", [9] which suggested to George Doig that Virgil was aware of the Greek τλῆναι "to endure"; Doig offers the further ...
In Greek mythology, Merope / ˈ m ɛr ə p iː / [1] (Ancient Greek: Μερόπη) is one of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Pleione, their mother, is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and is the protector of sailors. [2] Their transformation into the star cluster known as the Pleiades is the subject of various myths.
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Pleione was mother to seven daughters, known as the Pleiades. Their names were: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope and Merope. [3] She is often said to be the mother of Calypso with Atlas as well. [4] Among her grandchildren were the god Hermes and the demigod Iasion.