Another name for the Pleiades was "the clusterers," and they are frequently represented on ancient coins by a cluster of grapes. A coin of Mallos in Cilicia shows them represented by doves whose bodies are formed by bunches of grapes.
The Pleiades according to mythology were the seven daughters of Atlas, the giant who bears the world upon his shoulders, and the nymph Pleione. The story is, that these seven maidens, together with their sisters the Hyades, were transformed into stars on account of their "amiable virtues and mutual affection." According to Æschylus they were placed in the heavens on account of their filial sorrow at the burden imposed upon their father Atlas.
Aratos thus records the names of these seven sisters:
Alcyone and Merope, Celæno,
Taygeta, and Sterope, Electra,
And queenly Maia, small alike and faint,
But by the will of Jove illustrious all
At morn and evening, since he makes them mark
Summer and winter, harvesting and seed time.
One myth concerning the Pleiades relates that they were so beautiful in appearance that Orion unceasingly pursued them, much to their discomfiture. They appealed to Jupiter for assistance and he pitying them changed them into doves. Thereupon they flew into the sky and found a refuge among the stars.
The Smith Sound Eskimos have the following legend concerning the Pleiades, which group they call "Nanuq," meaning "the Bear": "A number of dogs were pursuing a bear on the ice. The bear gradually rose up in the air as did the dogs until they reached the sky. Then they turned to stars and the bear became a larger star in the centre of the group, and is represented by the star Alcyone."
One of the seven stars in this cluster is not as brilliant as the others and this star the Greeks called "the Lost Pleiad."
