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The Pleiades , a`flock of doves', seven sisters mythologically transformed into a star cluster, were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and half-sisters of the Hyades, whose mother was Æthra. They were Alcyone, Asterope, Celæno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygeta.
Maia was eldest and most beautiful of the sisters: a mountain nymph in Arcadia. Seduced by Zeus, she gave birth to Hermes, and later became foster-mother to Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto. The month of May is named after her, and is the month in which the solar conjunction happens.
The Pleiades were also nymphs and companions of Artemis (Diana) the virgin huntress, and together with the seven Hyades were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers to the infant Bacchus. Zeus placed them in the heavens to save them from the wrath of the giant, Orion.
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