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Pleiades (Greek mythology)

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Etymology

Various explanations for the name Pleiades were offered by ancient sources. Hyginus in his De Astronomica, says that Electra and her six sisters were called the Pleiades because, according to the 1st-century BC Greek scholar and historian Alexander Polyhistor, they were the daughters of Pleione. However, the name of the star-cluster likely came first, and Pleione was invented to explain it.

De Astronomica also says that, according to Musaeus, the mother of the Pleiades was instead an Oceanid named Aithra, explaining that they were called the Pleiades because they were more (pleion in Greek) of them than their sisters the Hyades.

According to another suggestion Pleiades derives from πλεῖν (plein , "to sail") because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising".

• Hard 2004, p. 518

The Ancient Greek name for the star-cluster came to be applied to the daughters of Atlas when they were identified with the stars; and the traditional name of their mother, Pleione, was also secondary to that of the star-cluster, for it was plainly devised to enable the name of the Pleiades to be interpreted as a matronymic. ... the Pleiades because there were more (pleious) of them.^{4 [Hyg. Fab.. 192, cf. Hyg. Astr 2.21, schol. Il. 18.486.]}

• West, pp. 254–255

The name Πληιάδες, Πλειάδες (later Πλειάς as collective singular) is certainly very old, perhaps Indo-European ... and its meaning is obscure. some see a connection with sailing (cf. 618 ff). In some poets they appear as Πελιάδες, Doves, but this must be a secondary folk etymology: the ordinary form cannot be accounted for from it. Pindar also knew the cluster as Πληιονα (fr. 74), which perhaps points to a link with πλειών 'seed' (see on 617). Later writers made Pleione the mother of the Pleiades.

• Fowler

p. 371

The oldest story about them is found in the works of Mousaios (fr. 88 Bernabé; cf. Pher. fr. 90c adinit.): Atlas and the Okeanid Aithra had twelve daughters and a son Hyas; while hunting in Libya, Hyas was bitten by a poisonous snake and died; the sisters then fell to inconsolable mourning. Five of them died of grief first; Zeus in pity made them stars, and called them the Hyades after their brother. The remaining seven eventually followed suit, and Zeus called them Pleiades because there were 'more' of them.

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

3.10.1

Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, had seven daughters called the Pleiades, born to them at Cyllene in Arcadia, to wit: Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia.¹

¹...With regard to the number of the Pleiades, it was generally agreed that there were seven of them, but that one was invisible, or nearly so, to the human eye. Of this invisibility two explanations were given. Some thought that Electra, as the mother of Dardanus, was so grieved at the fall of Troy that she hid her face in her hands; the other was that Merope, who had married a mere man, Sisyphus, was so ashamed of her humble, though honest, lot by comparison with the guilty splendour of her sisters, who were all of them paramours of gods, that she dared not show herself. These alternative and equally probable theories are stated, for example, by Ovid and Hyginus.

Apollonius Rhodius

Argonautica

3.226

when the Pleiades set,¹²

¹² The Pleiades set in November and rise in May.

Catasterismi

23

• Hard 2015, pp. 86–87

EPITOME 23

The Pleiades lie on the back of the Bull at the so-called cut-off;* the cluster is made up of a groiup of seven stars, which are said to be the daughters of Atlas, and it is thus called the Seven-starred. One cannot be seen, however but only six, and the explanation goes something like this: six of them had liaisons with gods,* so they say, and one of them with a mortal. Three of them slept with Zeus, namely Electra, who gave birth to Dardanos, Maia, who gave birth to Hermes, and Taygete, who gave birth to Lacedaimon; while two slept with Poseidon, namely Alcyone, who gavwe birth to Hyrieus, and Celaino, who gave birth to Lycos; and Sterope is said to have slept with Ares, bearing Oinomaos to him. But Merope married a mortal, Sisyphos, and that is why she is wholly invisible. The Pleiades are very highly regarded by human beings because they indicate the changing of the seasons.

• Gantz, p. 215

Hellanikos adds that, in chagrin at her marriage with a mere mortal, Merope became a dimmer star than her sisters (so too Katast 23);

Hellanicus

fr. 19a Fowler [= Scholia on Iliad 18.486 = Pherecydes fr. 90c Fowler]

Schol. Il. 18.486. Vide Pher. fr. 90c

Hesiod

Catalogue of Women

fr. 118 Most [= Hesiod fr. 169* MW = Schol. on Pindar Nemian 2.17]

118 (169* MW; 73 H) Schol. in Pind. Nem. 2.17 (III p. 35.3–5 Drachmann)

118¹ Scholia on Pindar’s Nemeans

lovely Taygete and dark-eyed Electra,

Alcyone and Asterope and godly Celaeno,

Maia and Merope, whom splendid Atlas begot

¹ Or perhaps instead from the Astronomy?

• Gantz, pp. 212–213

That they were in fact women, and not just stars, is first attested by an unattributed hexameter fragment, most likely from the Hesiodic corpus, which assigns names to them—Taugete, Elektra, Alkyone, Asterope, Kelaino, Maia, and Merope— and adds that Atlas engendered them (Hes fr. 169 MW). Here the citer, not the preserved lines, identifies these sisters as the Pleiades;

Other Fragments

fr. 223 Most [= fr. 288 MW = Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 11.80]

223 (288 MW) Athen. 11.80 (491d)

223 Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner

The author of the Astronomy attributed to Hesiod always calls them Pleiades:

mortals call these the Pleiades

fr. 224 [= fr. 289 MW = Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 11.80]

224 (289 MW) ibid.

224 Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner

and again:

the wintry Pleiades set

fr. 225 [= fr. 290 MW = Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 11.80]

225 (290 MW) ibid.

225 Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner

and again:

at that time the Pleiades conceal

Works and Days

383

When the Atlas-born Pleiades rise,

• West 1978, pp. 254–255

Πληιάδων Ἀτλαγενέων: The Pleiades, ...

618–620

But if desire for storm-tossed seafaring seize you: when the Pleiades, fleeing Orion’s mighty strength, fall into the murky sea,

Homer

Iliad

18.486

First fashioned [Hephaestus] a shield, [for Achilles] ... [485] and therein all the constellations wherewith heaven is crowned—the Pleiades, ...

Odyssey

5.272

[270] and he [Odysseus] sat and guided his raft skilfully with the steering-oar, nor did sleep fall upon his eyelids, as he watched the Pleiads, and late-setting Bootes, ...

Hyginus

De Astronomica

2.21.2

Hard's translation, p. 88

The Pleiades came to be called by that name, according to Musaeus, because fifteen daughters* were born to Atlas and Aithra, daughter of Oceanos, five of them were called the Hyades, [who died of grief for their brother Hyas] ... The other ten sisters reflected on the death of their sisters and seven of them committed suicide; and since the greator number of them felt that way they came to be called Pleiades.*^{[It is suggested that they were called the Pleiades because they were more in number, pleious in Greek; but see p. 89 for the correct version of the story.]}

Grant's translation, with mislabled section numbers? (see Latin):

The Pleiades were so named, according to Musaeaus, because fifteen daughters were born to Atlas and Aethra, daughter of Ocean. Five of them are called Hyades ... The remaining ten brooded over the death of their sisters, and brought death on themselves; because so may experienced the same grief, they were called Pleiades.

• Gantz, p. 213 n. 23 Hyginus (Astr. 2.21.2) has the correct version [Pleiades as daughters of Atlas and the Oceanid Aithra rather than daughters of Oceanus and Aithra], also assigned to Mousaios.

2.21.3

Hard's translation, p. 88

Or according to Alexander,* ^{[Alexander Polyhistor, a Greek scholar of the 1st century BC who resided in Itlay; Hyginus had studied under him.]} ... the Pleiades because they were the daughters of Pleione, daughter of Oceanos, and Atlas.

The Pleiades are said to be seven in number, but no one can see more than six of them. It has been suggested by way of explanation that, of the seven, six went to bed with immortals—while the other is indicated to have been the wife of Sisyphos. To Zeus, Electra bore Dardanos, and Maia Hermes, and Taygete La... As for Merope ... She was placed among the stars thanks to her other sisters, but because she married a mortal, her star is faint.

According to other accounts, it is Electra who cannot be seen, for the following reason. The Pleiades led the chorus of the stars, so it is thought, but after the fall of Troy and the destruction of all who ere descended from her through Dardanos, Electra was overcome by grief and abandoned the company of her sisters to establish herself [cont.]

Hard's translation, p. 89

on the circle known as the arctic, and at long intervals she can be seen in mourning with her hair unloosed; for that reason she has come to be called a comet (long-haired star).

Grant's translation, with mislabled section numbers? (see Latin):

Alexander says ... Pleiades, because born of Pleio [Pleione], daughter of Ocean, and Atlas.

The Pleiades are called seven in number, but only six can be seen. This reason has been advanced, that of the seven, six mated with immortals (three with Jove, two with Neptune, and one with Mars); the seventh was said to have been the wife of Sisyphus. From Electra and Jove, Dardanus was born; from Maia and Jove, Mercury; from Taygete and Jove, Lacedaemon; from Alcyone and Neptune, Hyrieus; from Celaeno and Neptune, Lycus and Nycteus. Mars by Sterope begat Oinomaus, but others call her the wife of Oinomaus. Merope, wed to Sisyphus, bore Glaucus, who, as many say, was the father of Bellerophon. On account of her other sisters she was placed among the constellations, but because she married a mortal, her star is dim. Others say Electra does not appear because the Pleiades are thought to lead the circling dance for the stars, but after Troy was captured and her descendants through Dardanus overthrown, moved by grief she left them and took her place in the circle called Arctic. From this she appears, in grief for such a long time, with her hair unbound, that, because of this, she is called a comet.

2.21.4

Hard's translation, p. 89

The ancient astronomers placed these apart from the Bull; they were the daughters, as we have already said, of Pleione and Atlas. While Pleione was once passing through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion* grew over excited and tried to rape her, causing her to flee; But Orion pursued her for seven years without being able to catch her. Taking pity on the girls, Zeus placed them among the stars, and some astronomers have called them the Bull's tail. Thus it is that Orion still seems to pursue them as they flee toward the west. Our countrymen have called these stars the Veriliae because they rise after springtime (ver).* and they enjoy greator honours, indeed, than all other stars because their rising indicates the arrival of summer, and their setting the coming of winter, something that can not be said of other constellations (Astronomy 2.21).

Grant's translation, with mislabled section numbers? (see Latin):

But ancient astronomers placed these Pleiades, daughters of Pleione and Atlas, as we have said, apart from the Bull. When Pleione once was travelling through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion, who was accompanying her, tried to attack her. She escaped, but Orion sought her for seven years and couldn't find her. Jove, pitying the girls, appointed a way to the stars, and later, by some astronomers, they were called the Bull's tail. And so up to this time Orion seems to be following them as they flee towards the west. Our writers call these stars Vergiliae, because they rise after spring. They have still greater honour than the others, too, because their rising is a sign of summer, their setting of winter — a thing is not true of the other constellations

• Gantz, pp. 213, 215

[p. 213:] Atlas and Pleione also appear as the girls parents in the first-century B.C. historian Alexandros Polyhistor (so at least Hyginus: Astr 2.21.3)

[p. 215:] Both accounts [of which Pleiad was dim] appear in Ovid (Fasti 4.175-78) and Hyginus (Astr 2.21.3; Fab 192).

192

Hylas

Atlas and Pleione (or another Oceanid) had twelve daughters and a son, Hyas, who was killed by either a boar or a lion. His sisters perished from grief as they mourned his death. Of these, the first five who died were raised to the stars and occupy the place between the horns of Taurus [Hyades] ...

As for the other sisters, who died from grief, they too were later made into a constellation, and because thre were more of them, they are called the Pleades.⁶⁷ ... These are their names: Electra, ... and Maia. They say that of these, Electra does not appear, because her son Dardanus was lost and Troy was stolen from her.

⁶⁷ The Greek pleion means "more".

Ovid

Fasti

4.166–178

When the night has passed, and the sky has just begun to blush, and dew-besprinkled birds are twittering plaintively, and the wayfarer, who all night long has waked, lays down his half-burnt torch, and the swain goes forth to his accustomed toil, the Pleiads will commence to lighten the burden that rests on their father’s^b shoulders; seven are they usually called, but six they usually are; whether it be that six of the sisters were embraced by gods (for they say that Sterope lay with Mars, Alcyone and fair Celaeno with Neptune, and Maia, Electra, and Taygete with Jupiter); the seventh, Merope, was married to a mortal man, to Sisyphus, and she repents of it, and from shame at the deed she alone of the sisters hides herself; or whether it be that Electra could not brook to behold the fall of Troy, and so covered her eyes with her hand.

^b Atlas.

5.83–84

Their [Tethys and Oceanus] daughter Pleione, as report has it, was united to Atlas, who upholds the sky, and she gave birth to the Pleiads.

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Posthomerica

13.551–560

Its [Troy] fall is said also to have caused the long-robed Electra to shroud her body in mist and cloud and to reject the company of the other Pleiades, her sisters. When they rise as a group into the heavens, the others are visible to wretched mortals, but she is the only one always to keep hidden and unseen; and this she does because the holy city of her noble son Dardanus has fallen, and almighty Zeus did not come to its aid in person from the sky: even the power of great Zeus must yield to the Fates.

Scholia on the Iliad

18.486 [= The Sack of Ilion (Iliupersis) fr. 5* West]

• West 2003, pp. 150–151

“the Pleiades” Seven stars . . . They say that Electra, being unwilling to watch the sack of Ilion because it was a foundation of her descendants,⁵⁴ left the place where she had been set as a star, so that whereas they had previously been seven, they became six. The story is found in the Cyclic poets.

⁵⁴ She was the mother of Dardanus by Zeus, and so ancestor of Laomedon.

• Fowler 2013

p. 415

The story of the girls' escape from Orion by casterism is attributed to the Epic Cycle by the D scholion on Il. 18.486 (Titanomachhy fr. dub. 14 Bernabé, p. 74 Davies); the subscription, as usual, cannot be relied upon, and may apply only to the last part of the historia concerning Elektra.⁵

⁵ Printed by West as Iliupersis fr.5*;⟶§18.4.4 ...

p. 544

The Cycle (Iliupersis fr. 5*) also told the story of why the visible Pleiades were only six in number, whereas there were in fact seven of them (cf. Arat. Phian 257-8 with Kidd): Elektra could not stand to watch the sack, so left (see also §13.1).

• Gantz

p. 213

But we also find her in the A scholia to Iliad 18.486, where she and Atlas are together the parents of the seven girls; these latter choose maidenhood and the hunt with Artemis, but find themselves pursued by the amourous Orion and appeal to Zeus, who turns them into stars. The scholion closes with the remark that the story is in the Epic Cycle (Bernabé includes it as fr. 14 among the fragmenta dubia of the Titanomachia), but even should this be so, the scholiast may mean only the very last part of his story (Electra's defection).

p. 215

an alternate explanation found by scholiasts in Aratos' (now lost) epikêdeion to Theopropos makes the fainter star Elektra, who turns her face from the sack of Troy (Σ Arat 254; ΣA Il. 18.486). The second of these stories also appears in an earlier section of ΣA Iliad 18.486, introduced by the words "they say": as such it may be what the scholiast meant to attribute to the Epic Cycle (see above) or a momentary intrusion in a larger citation.

Simonides

fr. 555 Campbell

555 Athen. 11. 490ef (iii 81 Kaibel)

555 Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner

Simonides also calls the Pleiads Peleiades¹ in these lines:

and it² is deservedly given by Hermes, lord of contests, son of mountain³ Maias of the lively eyes: Atlas fathered her, outstanding in beauty among his seven dear violet-haired daughters who are called the heavenly Peleiades.

¹ Doves.

² The victor’s prize?

³ The scholiast on Pindar (‘the mountain Peleiades’) says Sim. used the epithet since she bore Hermes on Mt. Cyllene.

Modern

Fowler

2000

p. 161

fr. 19a Fowler [= Scholia on Iliad 18.486 = Pherecydes fr. 90c Fowler]

Schol. Il. 18.486. Vide Pher. fr. 90c

p. 322

Pherecydes fr. 90c

2013

p. 371

§10.1 The Hyades (Pher. fr. 90)

The Hyades ... The oldest story about them is found in the works of Mousaios (fr. 88 Bernabé; cf. Pher. fr. 90c adinit.): Atlas and the Okeanid Aithra had twelve daughters and a son Hyas; while hunting in Libya, Hyas was bitten by a poisonous snake and died; the sisters then fell to inconsolable mourning. Five of them died of grief first; Zeus in pity made them stars, and called them the Hyades after their brother. The remaining seven eventually followed suit, and Zeus called them Pleiades because there were 'more' of them.

p. 372

Perhaps Pherekydes knew of the doves of Dodona (cf. Hdt. 2.54-7, Soph. Trach. 171-2; Parke, The Oracles of Zeus 62); in poetry Πελειάδες is a metrical alternate to Pleiades, the Hyades' sisters, and the popular etymology is implied already by Aischylos (fr. 312, with the passages quoted by Radt) and perhaps Pind. Nem. 2.11, where they are mentioned with Orion (before whom, like birds, they flee in the sky). If Pherekydes thought the Pleides came from Dodona, it would be logical to think their sisters did too.

p. 415

§13 ATALANTIDES

§13.1 The Group (Hellan. fr. 19)

The strong association of the individual Pleiades with different regions suggests that they were originally independent figures, and that someone subsequently brought them together into a single family as daughters of Atlas. Their association with the constellation seems also to be a secondary development. It was traditionally said to be seven stars, but with only six visible to average eyes. The number could be very ancient, if the cluster of seven dots on the Nebra disc represents them (c. 1600 BC; West, IEPM 208); seven is a common number for groups¹ The name too is very old, possible Indo-European; the form 'Peleiades', 'doves', is a product of Greek popular etymology, found first in 'Hes.' frr. 288-90 and Alkm. PMGF 1.60, Simon. PMG 555.5, Aisch. fr. 312-4, Pind. Nem. 2.11.² The constellation appears to be chased by Orion (Hes. Op. 619-20), which gave rise to a myth;³ [ADD]

---

The story of the girls' escape from Orion by casterism is attributed to the Epic Cycle by the D scholion on Il. 18.486 (Titanomachhy fr. dub. 14 Bernabé, p. 74 Davies); the subscription, as usual, cannot be relied upon, and may apply only to the last part of the historia concerning Elektra.⁵

¹ Kidd on Arat. Phain. 257; Puhvel, 'Names and Numbers of the Pleiad'.

²

³ Details in Gantz, 213-214.

⁴

⁵ Printed by West as Iliupersis fr.5*;⟶§18.4.4 ...

p. 416

(The other story is that Electra, mother of Dardanos, could not stand to see Troy fall, so turned her gase away; (⟶§18.4.4)

p. 417

Hellan. fr. 19, which presents his list [of Pleiades], comes to us in two forms. The first fr. 19a, is given by the already mentioned scholion on Il. 18.486 that quotes Pher. fr. 90c. Six mates with gods. The order is ... Elektra with Zeus, from whom Dardanos;⁸ ... Then Merope with Sisyphos the mortal, which is why she is faint.

⁸ 'Elektryone' was in fact Hellanikos' name for her; see §18.1.1 on fr. 23.

p. 522

§18 THE TROJAN CYCLE

§18.1 Trojan Genealogies and Stories

§18.1.1 DARDANOS AND HIS DESCENDANTS ...

HELLAN. fr. 23 informs us that Elektra, or Elektryone as Hellanikos calls her, dwelled on Samothrace and was known by the locals as Strategis. Her three children were Dardanos (also known as Polyarkes by the localls) who settled in the Troad, Eetion (also named Iasion; blasted by Zeus for his outrage of the statue of Demeter), and Harmonia, Kadmos' bride (whence the Electran gates in Thebes).¹ All of these details probably came from Hellanikos. The scholiast on Od. 5.125, where Iasion is mentioned, cites him [Hellanicus] again about the parentage of Iasion, who is a son of Zeus and 'Elektra' rather than Cretan. (Hellan. f. 135). 'Elektra' is the form again in fr. 19a; this could be a trivialization on the part of the scholiasts, but Hellanikos himself probably said explicitly that the Elektryone of Samothracian myth was identical with the Elektra of other stories. It is clear that he had access to loal information aout the island, as is suggested by the alternative names in this fragment (although Eetion/Iasion is in herited from Hesiod Th. 970, fr. 177; for the others Hellanikos is the sole authority).² He inovated in giving Elektra a third child, Harmonia, Kadmos' wife, which could have been inspired by the similarity of his name to that of Kadmilos (⟶§1.7.2 at n. 142).

¹ The table on p. 525 below should be consulted throughout this section.

² Note, however ...

p. 544

The Cycle (Iliupersis fr. 5*) also told the story of why the visible Pleiades were only six in number, whereas there were in fact seven of them (cf. Arat. Phian 257-8 with Kidd): Elektra could not stand to watch the sack, so left (see also §13.1).

Gantz

p. 212

The Daughters of Atlas

The seven women whom Greek mythology comes to identify as the Pleiades give every indication of being a late grouping of originally disparate figures. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Hesiod's Works & Days are all familiar with the constellation of seven stars by that name. Hephaistos places them on the shield of Achilleus (Il 18.486), Odysseus watches them while he steers away from the island of Kalypso (Od 5.272), and for Hesiod they signal the begining of the harvest (W&D 383). Hesiod also calls them Atlageneis, which might seem to mean "born from Atlas," and was perhaps so understood by Hesiod himself. But the linguistic formation suggests rather the sense that they first appeared above, or were born near, some geographic location indicted by Atla-, and that this epithet then led to their connection with the Titan Atlas.²² That they were in fact women, and not just stars, is first attested by an unat- [cont.]

²² West 1978.255.

p. 213

tributed hexameter fragment, most likely from the Hesiodic corpus, which assigns names to them—Taugete, Elektra, Alkyone, Asterope, Kelaino, Maia, and Merope— and adds that Atlas engendered them (Hes fr. 169 MW). Here the citer, not the preserved lines, identifies these sisters as the Pleiades; Simonides (555 PMG) is the first datable source to specifically link that term with daughters of Atlas. The names remain largely unchanged throughout their long history, but their association with different geographic regions is in itself an argument against any real family. "Pleiades" as a collective name is also puzzling, since it cannot be a patronymic indicating their father if he is to be Atlas. The solution hit upon by the mythographers, at least in later times was to consider it rather a matronymic referring to one Pleione, an Okeanid unattested in any other context. The first preserved trace of this Pleione is apparently in a lost work by Pindar, where she is the object of Orion's pursuit (fr. 74 SM; see Aristarchos' objection below). But we also find her in the A scholia to Iliad 18.486, where she and Atlas are together the parents of the seven girls; these latter choose maidenhood and the hunt with Artemis, but find themselves pursued by the amourous Orion and appeal to Zeus, who turns them into stars. The scholion closes with the remark that the story is in the Epic Cycle (Bernabé includes it as fr. 14 among the fragmenta dubia of the Titanomachia), but even should this be so, the scholiast may mean only the very last part of his story (Electra's defection). Atlas and Pleione also appear as the girls parents in the first-century B.C. historian Alexandros Polyhistor (so at least Hyginus: Astr 2.21.3), and as well Ovid (Fasti 5.81-84) and Apoloodorus (ApB 3.10.1), among others. In origin, of course, Pleiades might after all be a genuine patronymic, perhaps shifted to a matronymic when the epithet Atlageneis was misinterpreted as an indication of their father. "Mousaios" makes the group daughters of Atlas and a Okeanid Aithra (2B18).²³

²³ Diels and Krantz quote the version of the Germanicus scholia which says (surely a mistake: see Robert's emenation) Okeanos and Aithra; Hyginus (Astr 2.21.2) has the correct version, also assigned to Mousaios.

p. 214

From the Pleiades as a group we turn now to their individual identities. Maia has an especially prominent position as Altlas' daughter ... A full list then appears in Hellanikos, where we find the following pairings Maia and Zeus (son Hermes); Taugete and Zeus (son [cont.]

p. 215

Lakedaimon); Elektra and Zeus (son Dardanos); Alkyone and Poseidon (son Hyrieus); Kelaino and Poseidon (son Lykos); Sterope and Ares (son Oinomaos); Merope and Sisyphos (son Glaukos) (4F19). Hellanikos adds that, in chagrin at her marriage with a mere mortal, Merope became a dimmer star than her sisters (so too Katast 23); an alternate explanation found by scholiasts in Aratos' (now lost) epikêdeion to Theopropos makes the fainter star Elektra, who turns her face from the sack of Troy (Σ Arat 254; ΣA Il. 18.486). The second of these stories also appears in an earlier section of ΣA Iliad 18.486, introduced by the words "they say": as such it may be what the scholiast meant to attribute to the Epic Cycle (see above) or a momentary intrusion in a larger citation. Both accounts appear in Ovid (Fasti 4.175-78) and Hyginus (Astr 2.21.3; Fab 192).

As for Elektra's children, a second citaion from Hellanikos speaks of them as three in number (all still by Zeus) rather than just one: Dardanos, plus Eetion and Harmonia (4F23) Eetion is here (as probably in the Ehoiai: see chapter 2) equated with Demeter's lover Iasion. The remnants of the Ehoiai, moreover, mention Elektra, Dardanos, and Eetion at the beginning of consecutive (fragmentary) lines, so that poem probably anticipated Hellanikos with regard to two sons (Hes fr. 177 MW). On the other hand our papyrus has no room for a third child, whether Harmonia or anyone else. But Hellanikos' belief in such a child may well deviate from general tradition, since he equates Elektra's daughter Harmonia with the Harmonia, wife of Kadmos, who in the Theogony and everywhere else is the child of Ares and Aphrodite.

p. 558

The Ehoiai, ... in the form of a papyrus fragment with only the left edge preserved (Hes fr 177 MW). From what survives we see that Dardanos' mother was apparently Elektra, and we should probably make this figure as in Hellanikos (where she bears Dardanos to Zeus: 4F19a) a daughter of Atlas. The fragment further gives Dardanos a brother Eetion (Hellanikos [4F23] calls him both Eetion and Iasion),

Grimal

s.v. Electra 2

One of the PLEADES, the seven daughters of Pleione, who lived on Samothrace. Zeus fatherd her child Dardanus (Table 7), who left Samothrace and went to the Troad, where he founded the royal dynasty of Troy.

Electra had another son IASION, whose legend is linked to those surrounding Cybele and Demeter.

Electra is also said to have had a third son named Emathion, who ruled over Samothrace, but more frequently this child of hers by Zeus is named Harmonia, though conflicting accounts claim that Harmonia's parents were Ares and Aphrodite. In the Italian version of Electra's legend, she was the wife of the Etruscan king Corythus, and Dardanus and Iasion were born in Italy.

Electra is also connected to the legend of the PALLADIUM. When Zeus attempted to rape her she sought refuge close to the divine statue, but in vain; in his anger Zeus threw the Palladium from the vault of Heaven. The statue landed in the Troad and was preserved in a temple at Troy. In other versions Electra herself brought the statue to Dardanus to provide protection for Troy. She was later transformed with her sisters into the constellation of the Pleiades.

s.v. Palladium

The statue remained on Olympus until the day when Zeus attempted to rape Electra who sought refuge by the statue, an inviolable place of asylum. But Zeus hurled the Palladium down from Olympus, and it fell on to ...

s.v. Pleiades

It is said that the Pleiades were in Boeotia one day with their mother Pleione when they met the terrible huntsman Orion, who fell in love with them. He pursued them for five years and eventually they were changed into doves. Zeus then took pity on them and turned them into stars. Their are other traditions about them: in one, their transformation was the result of the grief which they felt when their father Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky upon his shoulders, and in another version the Pleiades and their five sisters the HYADES, were changed into stars after the death of their brother Hyas, who was bitten by a snake. When Troy fell, the Pleiad Electra, from whom the Trojan royal house was descended, left her sisters, in despair, and was changed into a comet.

p. 482

Electra (1) ... (2) Apollod. Bibl. 3,10,1; 3,12,1; Conon, Narr. 21; Virgil, Aen. 3,163ff.; Serv. on Virgil, Aen 3,167; 104; 7,207; 10,272; Hellanicus, fragment 56; 129 (Müller FHG I, pp. 52; 63); Diod. Sic. 3,48ff.; Euripides, Phoen. 1136.

Hard

2004

p. 297

Kadmos marries Harmonia and founds Thebes

Ares was reconciled with Kadmos after his servitude was complete, and Zeus granted him a goddess wife, namely HARMONIA, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite.

According to some Hellenistic accounts, Harmonia was a mortal rather than divine, as a daughter by Zeus by a mortal mother, Elektra, daughter of Atlas. In that case she was sister to Iasion and Dardanos (see p. 521) and was brought up on the island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean, where Kadmos happened to come across her during his search for Europa. According to Ephorus, a historian of the fourth century BC, he abducted her as he was sailing by, hence the origin of a local ceremony in which the islanders conducted [cont.]

p. 298

a ritual search for Elektra; or in Diodorus' account, he married her at a formal wedding on Samothrace, in the presence of the gods as in the traditional story of his marriage to the goddess at Thebes.²⁷ If it was accepted that Harmonia was a child of Elektra, it could be explained that the Elektran gates at Thebes were named after her mother (although another story suggests that they were named after a sister of Kadmos).²⁸

²⁷ Schol. Eur. Phoen. 7 citing Ephorus and Demagoras, D.S. 4.48.2-49.2.

²⁸ Paus. 9.12.3

p. 517

THE ATLANTIDS

Atlas and his seven daughters, the Pleiades

Atlas, a son of the Titan Iapetos (see p. 49), managed to father a sizeable family even though he had to hold up the heavens; for his wife Pleione, daughter of Okeanos, bore him seven notable daughters, who were of twofold significance. Under their collective name of the Pleiades, they were identified with the sven stars of the splendid sat-cluster of that name in the constellation of the Bull; and under their individual names, they were of genealogical importance as the founders of the various branches of one of the great families of heroic mythology, the family of the Atlantids. ...

p. 518

The Ancient Greek name for the star-cluster came to be applied to the daughters of Atlas when they were identified with the stars; and the traditional name of their mother, Pleione, was also secondary to that of the star-cluster, for it was plainly devised to enable the name of the Pleiades to be interpreted as a matronymic. The astral myths of the Pleiades fall into two groups, some explaining how the daughters of Atlas (who are regarded as a group of maidens in this connection) came to be transferred to the heavens, and others explaining why one of the Pleiades shines less brightly than the others.

Since the constellation of Orion rises as the Pleiades set, Orion seems to pursue them across the sky. It was explained accordingly that Orion had once encountered them as they were passing through Boeotia (his original homeland, see p. 561) with their mother Pleione, and had pursued them all in hope of Raping Pleione; but when the chase had continued for five (or seven) years, Zeus took pity on the maidens and transferred them to the heavens, where the pursuit is represented in the stars.^{2 [Hyg. Astr. 2.21 (seven years), schol. Pi. Nem. 2.16 (five years), schol. A.R. 3.225.]} Or in a somewhat different version, when Orion set out to rape the maidens themselves, causing them to pray to the gods for help, Zeus saved them by turning them into doves (peleiades) and removing them to the stars.³

A wholly different story [ADD] ⁴ [ADD] ⁵ [ADD] ⁶ [ADD]

Although tradition stated that there were seven stars in the Pleiades, this was a merely conventional number since more stars can be distinguished and six are brighter than all the rest. To explain why one of the seven stars should be less radiant, [cont.]

p. 519

it was suggested that the Pleiad Merope hides her light because she is ashamed at having been the only sister to have married a mortal (i.e. Sisphos, see below).^{7 [Hyg. Astr. 2.21, Eratosth. 23, Ov. Fasti 4.175-6, Serv. Georg. 1.138.]} Or else another of the sisters, Elektra, was so distressed to behold the destruction of Troy (which was ruled by descendants of hers, see below) that she covered her face and has been barely visible ever since; or else she abandoned her sisters altogether to become a comet, an idea inspired by the thought that the tail of a comet (i.e. long-haired star, astēr komētēs) resembles the loosened hair of a women in mourning.^{8 [Ovid Fasti 4.177-8, schol. Arat. 257, Q.S. 13.551-61; as comet, Hyg. Fab. 192, Hyg., Astr. 2.21, schol. Il. 18.486.}

To pass on to the second aspect of the mythology of the daughters of Atlas, their generational function as founders of heroic families or mothers of notable children, two of them were founders of major families whose histories have yet to be traced, namely Elektra as the progenitor of the Trojan royal line, and Taygete as the progenitor of the early Spartan royal line.

p. 521

The history of the Trojan royal family

The Trojan royal family was descended from ELEKTRA through her son DARDANOS. She bore him to Zeus along with another son Iasion (or Eetion), on the island of Samothrace in the north-eastern corner of the Aegean.²⁶

²⁶ Conon 21, Apollod. 3.12.1, cf. Hellanic. 4F23 (her children Dardanos, Eetion and Harmonia). Elektra was apparently the mother of Dardanos and Eetion in the Hesiodic Catalogue, fr. 177, although the relevant papyrus is full of gaps.

p. 523

[Ilus] prayed to Zeus for confirmation, and when he emerged from his tent on the following morning, he found a wooden effigy (xoanon) of Pallas Athena had fallen from the sky during the night and was lying on the ground outside.^{43 [Apollod. 3.12.3]} This statue, which was known as the Palladion (i.e. effigy of Pallas Athena; Palladium in Latin form), would serve as a protective talisman for Ilion; Ilos raised a magnificant temple to Athena to house it, where it remained until Odysseus stole it in the last stage of the Trojan War to deprive the Trojans of its protective power (see p. 472).

2015

p. 39 [translation of Astr 2.4]

But to return to our main subject, Hermippos,*^{[of Smyrna, an author of the 3rd century who belonged to the school of Callimachus.]} the author of astronomical works, says that Demeter slept with Iasion, a son of Theseus, and was struck with a thunderbolt as a consequence, as is reported by many authors, including Homer.*^{[Od. 5.128].}

p. 41

There was an ancient myth (Hes. Theog. 969 ff., Homer, Od. 5.125 ff.) in which the corn-goddess Demeter was said to have slept with Iasion in a thrice-ploughed field, to conceive a child Ploutos (Wealth),

p. 86

The Pleiades lie on the back of the Bull at the so-called cut-off;* the cluster is made up of a groiup of seven stars, which are said to be the daughters of Atlas, and it is thus called the Seven-starred. One cannot be seen, however but only six, and the explanation goes something like this: six of them had liaisons with gods,* so they [cont.]

P. 87

say, and one of them with a mortal. Three of them slept with Zeus, namely Electra, who gave birth to Dardanos, Maia, who gave birth to Hermes, and Taygete, who gave birth to Lacedaimon; while two slept with Poseidon, namely Alcyone, who gavwe birth to Hyrieus, and Celaino, who gave birth to Lycos; and Sterope is said to have slept with Ares, bearing Oinomaos to him. But Merope married a mortal, Sisyphos, and that is why she is wholly invisible. The Pleiades are very highly regarded by human beings because they indicate the changing of the seasons.

p. 88 [translation of Astr 2.21]

The Pleiades came to be called by that name, according to Musaeus, because fifteen daughters* were born to Atlas and Aithra, daughter of Oceanos, five of them were called the Hyades, [who died of grief for their brother Hyas] ... The other ten sisters reflected on the death of their sisters and seven of them committed suicide; and since the greator number of them felt that way they came to be called Pleiades.*^{[It is suggested that they were called the Pleiades because they were more in number, pleious in Greek; but see p. 89 for the correct version of the story.]}

Or according to Alexander,* ^{[Alexander Polyhistor, a Greek scholar of the 1st century BC who resided in Itlay; Hyginus had studied under him.]} ... the Pleiades because they were the daughters of Pleione, daughter of Oceanos, and Atlas.

The Pleiades are said to be seven in number, but no one can see more than six of them. It has been suggested by way of explanation that, of the seven, six went to bed with immortals—while the other is indicated to have been the wife of Sisyphos. To Zeus, Electra bore Dardanos, and Maia Hermes, and Taygete Lacedaimon; to Poseidon, Alcyone bore Hyrieus, and Celaino bore Lycos and Nycteus; and to Ares, Sterope bore Oinomaos (although others say that she was the wife of Oinomaos). As for Merope ... She was placed among the stars thanks to her other sisters, but because she married a mortal, her star is faint.

According to other accounts, it is Electra who cannot be seen, for the following reason. The Pleiades led the chorus of the stars, so it is thought, but after the fall of Troy and the destruction of all who ere descended from her through Dardanos, Electra was overcome by grief and abandoned the company of her sisters to establish herself [cont.]

p. 89 [translation of Astr 2.21]

[on the circle known as the arctic, and at long intervals she can be seen in mourning with her hair unloosed; for that reason she has come to be called a comet (long-haired star).

The ancient astronomers placed these apart from the Bull; they were the daughters, as we have already said, of Pleione and Atlas. While Pleione was once passing through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion* grew over excited and tried to rape her, causing her to flee; But Orion pursued her for seven years without being able to catch her. Taking pity on the girls, Zeus placed them among the stars, and some astronomers have called them the Bull's tail. Thus it is that Orion still seems to pursue them as they flee toward the west. Our countrymen have called these stars the Veriliae because they rise after springtime (ver).* and they enjoy greator honours, indeed, than all other stars because their rising indicates the arrival of summer, and their setting the coming of winter, something that can not be said of other constellations (Astronomy 2.21).

p. 99 [translation of Astr 2.22]

According to some accounts, ... and Iasion, who aroused the love of Demeter and were transferred to the sky.

p. 100

A Greek-English Lexicon

s.v. πλείων

A.more, of number, size, extent, etc.

Oxford Classical Dictionary

s.v. Electra (2)

Daughter of Atlas, one of the Pleiades, born in Arcadia (Apollod. 3.110), usually located on Samothrace (as Ap. Rhod. I 916 and schol. there); mother by Zeus of Dardanus (q.v.) and Iasion (Iasius) (schol., ibid.).

Parada

s.v. Electra 3

One of the PLEIADES who does not appear because of the death of Dardanus 1 and the loss of Troy. (See also Merope 1.)

Smith

s.v. Electra 2

a daughter of Atlas and Pleione, was one of the seven Pleiades, and became by Zeus the mother of Jasion and Dardanus. (Apollod. 3.10.1, 12. §§ 1, 3.) According to a tradition preserved in Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 1.32, 2.325, 3.104, 7.207) she was the wife of the Italian king Corythus, by whom she had a son Jasion; whereas by Zeus she was the mother of Dardanus. (Comp. Serv. ad Aen. 1.384, 3.167; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 29.) Diodorus (5.48) calls Harmonia her daughter by Zeus. She is connected also with the legend about the Palladium. When Electra, it is said, had come as a suppliant to the Palladium, which Athena had established, Zeus or Athena herself threw it into the territory of Ilium, because it had been sullied by the hands of a woman who was no longer a pure maiden, and king Ilus then built a temple to Zeus. (Apollod. 3.12.3.) According to others it was Electra herself that brought the Palladium to Ilium, and gave it to her son Dardanus. (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1136.) When she saw the city of her son perishing in flames, she tore out her hair for grief and was thus placed among the stars as a comet. (Serv. ad Aen. 10.272.) According to others, Electra and her six sisters were placed among the stars as the seven Pleiades, and lost their brilliancy on seeing the destruction of Ilium. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. 1.138; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1155.) The fabulous island of Electris was believed to have received its name from her. (Apollon. 1.916.)

Tripp

s.v. Electra (3)

A daughter of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleïone. One of the PLEIADES, Electra lived on the island of Samothrace. Zeus fell in love with her and carried her off to Olympus. She clung for a refuge to the Palladium, but Zeus, forgetting in his eagerness that he was a god of suppliants, flung the sacred image out of heaven. Electra returned to her island and bore Dardanus and Iasion. Some say that the dim or invisible start among the Pleiades is Electra, who retired to the Artic Circle in grief at the death of Dardanus or the sack of Troy. [Apollodorus 3.10.1, 3.12.1, 3.12.3; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica, 2.21.]

s.v. Palladium

Apparently [Athena] took it [the Palladium] with her to Olympus, for Zeus flung it from heaven when Atlas' daughter Electra clung to it in a vain attempt to avoid his embraces. The Palladium landed before the tent of Ilus, who having founded the city of Ilium (Troy), had just prayed to Zeus for a sign, Ilus built a temple for it. According to another account, Zeus gave the image to Ilus' great-grandfather Dardanus, the Samothracian founder of Dardania.

s.v. Pleiades

Their are two principal accounts of why the sisters found their way into the sky. According to one, Zeus placed them there because they had died of grief over the death of their sisters, the Hyades—who died of grief over the death of their brother Hyas. According to the other version, Zeus elevated them to save them from the lust Orion, who had pursued them and Pleione, for seven years. ...

One of the seven stars is so dim as to be scarcely visible. This is either Merope, blushing in shame at having married a mere mortal, or Electra, hiding her face in mourning for the death of her son Dardanus and the destruction of his city Troy.

West

1978

p. 254

Πληιάδων Ἀτλαγενέων: The Pleiades, ... The name Πληιάδες, Πλειάδες (later Πλειάς as collective singular) is certainly [cont.]

p. 255

very old, perhaps Indo-European ... and its meaning is obscure. some see a connection with sailing (cf. 618 ff). In some poets they appear as Πελιάδες, Doves, but this must be a secondary folk etymology: the ordinary form cannot be accounted for from it. Pindar also knew the cluster as Πληιονα (fr. 74), which perhaps points to a link with πλειών 'seed' (see on 617). Later writers made Pleione the mother of the Pleiades.

2003

The Sack of Ilion (Iliupersis)

fr. 5* West

5* Schol. (D) Il. 18.486a, “Πληϊάδες”

5* Scholiast on the Iliad, “the Pleiades” Seven stars . . . They say that Electra, being unwilling to watch the sack of Ilion because it was a foundation of her descendants,⁵⁴ left the place where she had been set as a star, so that whereas they had previously been seven, they became six. The story is found in the Cyclic poets.

⁵⁴ She was the mother of Dardanus by Zeus, and so ancestor of Laomedon.