(The Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
The following is another "Seven"-star example to be placed alongside the 7-star Big Dipper (Swastika) outlined on the first page in the "Seven" section at this site. Whether we of the present age can see the same mythological theme as did peoples of past eras is beside the point. And this includes whether or not we can see seven stars or make out additional fainter ones as well. As with the recognition of seven stars to the Big Dipper, we must ask whether the focus on a "7" quantity preceded or followed a "7" orientation influenced by some religious notion. Additionally, whether we prefer to say that it was or was not due to a religious orientation, with respect to an oral or written tradition, what then influenced the religious consciousness thereof?
One might easily say that a long history of star-gazing coupled with a developing consciousness of number-concept formation, provided the impetus for interpreting the "seven" star cluster as being representative of an inviable truth standard that was later incorporated into an oral and written tradition ear-marked (ego-marked) for personalized self-importance in the form of a religious philosophy. As such, it is important to remember that the history of number-concept formation developed along a three-patterned developmental course with the labeling of "One - Two - Many". In other words, different peoples in their own language equivalent way, had a word:
- "ONE" for the quantity 1
- "TWO" for the quantity 2
- "MANY" for 3 or more in quantity
Interestingly, the author Steven Gibson in the following presentation of the Pleiades Mythology, suggestively points out a possible name derivation as being pleos, defined as 'full', of which the plural is "many". If we had a more exacting date for the origin of the Pleiades notion, we might well have the date for the stage of number concept formation the originators were in. This inturn could be correlated with the perspective of a Bicameral mind/— and modern consciousness formation... if we could establish some parity between number concept and consciousness type, from the view that humanity has (and perhaps will continue to) experience different forms of consciousness.
Note: the use of the word "many" in describing the star cluster of the Pleiades also suggests an antiquity, at least in the respective part of the world. I am of course comparing this with the seven-star Big Dipper which may or may not have had a similar "many" reference in some language. For example, since the swastika symbol is said to be quite ancient and known in different cultures, did any of these cultures have a similar word or symbol describing the seven stars of the Big Dipper?
Some readers may not be able (at present) to follow the reasoning portrayed in the foregoing views. It is understandable because they are not familiar with the application of materials from different subject areas. Some may even have difficulty in grasping mythology of any kind, except for that which they are directly involved with in their beliefs, even if they do not comprehend how any part of their "reality" could possibly be a myth, (or a myth in the making) since everything they believe is felt to be true,... just as did many of those in the past (and today) who believed in various kinds of gods, spirits, demons, "power", ghosts, monsters, evil, etc...
F. E. Fillebrown engraving of The Dance of the Pleiades by Elihu Vedder
Courtesy of Art Connections
http://www.houstonarts.com/artconnections/
The mythology associated with the Pleiades cluster is extensive; Burnham alone devotes eight pages to the subject, and Allen more than twice that number (see references). Here only Greek legends are presented. Even so, these are manifold and often contradictory, being patched together from many different cultures over a long period of time. Further uncertainty is added by most Pleiads sharing names with otherwise unrelated mythological characters. So enjoy, but please do not consider this information to be infallible.
Possible Name Derivations
plein, 'to sail', making Pleione 'sailing queen' and her daughters 'sailing ones.' The cluster's conjunction with the sun in spring and opposition in fall marked the start and end of the summer sailing season in ancient Greece.
pleos, 'full', of which the plural is 'many', appropriate for a star cluster.
peleiades, 'flock of doves', consistent with the sisters' mythological transformation.
Genealogy
The Pleiad(e)s were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and half-sisters of the Hyades, whose mother was Æthra ('bright sky'; a different Æthra than the mother of Theseus). They were perhaps also half-sisters of the Hesperides, who were daughters of either Night alone, or Atlas and Hesperis ('evening'), or Ceto and Phorcys. Both Pleione and Æthra were Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, the titans who ruled the outer seas before being replaced by Poseidon. Atlas ('he who dares' or `suffers'; from the Indo-European tel-, tla-, `to lift, support, bear'), another titan, led their war against the gods, and was afterward condemned by Zeus to hold up the heavens on his shoulders. The Pleiades were also nymphs in the train of Artemis, and together with the seven Hyades ('rainmakers' or 'piglets'; individual Hyad names are not fully agreed upon) were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers to the infant Bacchus. The Hesperides (`nymphs of the west'), apparently not counted in this, were only three, and dwelled in an orchard of Hera's, from which Heracles fetched golden apples in his eleventh labor.
Individual Sisters
For each, a name translation is given first, followed by available biographical information, and parallel stories of like-named characters.
- Alcyone or Halcyone - `queen who wards off evil [storms]' -
- Asterope or Sterope - `lightning', `twinkling', `sun-face', `stubborn-face' (Indo-European ster-, `star', `stellar', `asterisk', etc.) -
- Celæno - 'swarthy' -
- Electra or Eleckra - 'amber', 'shining', 'bright' (Indo-European wleik-, 'to flow, run', as a liquid); electrum is an alloy of silver and gold, and means amber in Latin, as does the Greek elektron; Thales of Miletus noted in 600 BC that a rubbed piece of amber will attract bits of straw, a manifestation of the effects of static electricity (outer charge stripping via friction), and perhaps the origin of the modern term -
- Maia - 'grandmother', 'mother', 'nurse'; 'the great one' (Latin) -
- Merope - 'eloquent', 'bee-eater', 'mortal' -
- Taygete or Taygeta - ? tanygennetos, 'long-necked' -
Seduced by Poseidon and gave birth to either Hyrieus (the name of Orion's father, but perhaps not the same Hyrieus) or Anthas, founder of Anthæa, Hyperea, and Halicarnassus.
Another Alcyone, daughter of Æolus (guardian of the winds) and Ægiale, married Ceyx of Trachis; the two jokingly called each other Hera and Zeus, vexing those gods, who drowned Ceyx in a storm at sea; Alcyone threw herself into the sea at the news, and was transformed into a halcyon (kingfisher). Legend has it the halcyon hen buries her dead mate in the winter before laying her eggs in a compact nest and setting it adrift on the sea; Æolus forbids the nest to be disturbed, so the water is calm for 14 days centered on the winter solstice, called the Halcyon Days. The actual bird does not build nests however; instead the story probably derives from an old pagan observance of the turning season, with the moon-goddess conveying a dead symbolic king of the old year to his resting place. Though this Alcyone and the Pleiad Alcyone appear to be separate individuals, they may be related: in 2000 BC, a vigorous period of ancient astronomy, the Pleiades rose nearly four hours earlier than they do today for the same time of year, and were overhead at nightfall on the winter solstice, when the Halcyon supposedly nested; their conjunction with the sun during spring equinoxes at that time may have something to do with the association of the cluster with birds, which are often used as symbols of life and renewal.
In some accounts, ravished by Ares and gave birth to Oenomaus, king of Pisa. In others, Oenomaus was her husband, and they had a beautiful daughter, Hippodaima, and three sons, Leucippus, Hippodamus, and Dysponteus, founder of Dyspontium; or, Oenomaus may instead have had these children with Euarete, daughter of Acrisius.
Another Asterope was daughter of the river Cebren.
Still another was daughter of Porthaön, and may have been the mother of the Sirens, who lured sailors to their deaths with their enchanting singing.
A possible alternate name is Asterië ('of the starry sky' or 'of the sun'), which may also be a name for the creatrix of the universe, Eurynome, in the Pelasgian myth. Graves mentions her as a Pleiad only in passing, with no other mention in the other references. Perhaps she was at one time a Pleiad when different names were used, or an earlier version of Sterope, whose name is similar; or perhaps Graves is incorrect. He also in passing calls the titan or oak-goddess Dione a Pleiad, without explanation or corroboration. Does the term have a broader meaning in some contexts?
Had sons Lycus ("wolf") and Chimærus ("he-goat") by Prometheus. No other data.
Wife of Corythus; seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Dardanus, founder of Troy, ancestor of Priam and his house. Called Atlantis by Ovid, personifying the family. May also, by Thaumas, be the mother of the Harpies, foul bird-women who lived in a Cretan cave and harried criminals, but this could be a different ocean-nymph of the same name.
Another Electra was a daughter of Oedipus, though this may not be the same Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother. She is said to be mother of Dardanus and Iason.
Yet another Electra was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra, with an alternate name of Laodice, and with brother Orestes and sisters Chrysothemis and Iphigeneia (or Iphianassa), though the latter sister may have been Clytæmnestra's niece, adopted from Theseus and Helen. Agamemnon was king of Mycenæ and led the Greeks against Troy; he was murdered at his return by Clytæmnestra and her lover Ægisthus, both of whom Orestes and Electra killed in revenge, whence the psychological term 'Electra complex'. This Electra was also wife to the peasant Pylades, and bore him Medon and Strophius the Second.
Eldest and most beautiful of the sisters; a mountain nymph in Arcadia. Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Hermes. Later became foster-mother to Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto, during the period while Callisto was a bear, and before she and Arcas were placed in the heavens by Zeus (she as Ursa Major, he as either Boötes or Ursa Minor).
Another Maia was the Roman goddess of spring, daughter of Faunus and wife of Vulcan (his Greek counterpart, Hephæstus, married Aphrodite instead). Farmers were cautioned not to sow grain before the time of her setting, or conjunction with the sun. The month of May is named after her, and is coincidentally(?) the month in which the solar conjunction happens. By our modern calendar, the conjunction occurred in April in early Roman times, with the shift since then due to the precession of the Earth's axis; but calendars too have changed over time, especially before the time of Julius Caesar, so the month and the cluster's solar conjunction may have lined up then as well.
Married Sisyphus (se-sophos, 'very wise'), son of Æolus, grandson of Deucalion (the Greek Noah), and great-grandson of Prometheus. She bore Sisyphus sons Glaucus, Ornytion, and Sinon; she is sometimes also said to be mother of Dædalus, though others in the running are Alcippe and Iphinoë. Sisyphus founded the city of Ephyre (Corinth) and later revealed Zeus's rape of Ægina to her father Asopus (a river), for which Zeus condemned Sisyphus to roll a huge stone up a hill in Hades, only to have it roll back down each time the task was nearly done. Glaucus (or Glaukos) was father of Bellerophon, and in one story was killed by horses maddened by Aphrodite because he would not let them breed. He also led Lycian troops in the Trojan War, and in the Iliad was tricked by the Greek hero Diomedes into exchanging his gold armor for Diomedes' brass, the origin of the term 'Diomedian swap'. Another Glaucus was a fisherman of Boeotia who became a sea-god gifted with prophecy and instructed Apollo in soothsaying. Still another Glaucus was a son of Minos who drowned in a vat of honey and was revived by the seer Polyidos, who instructed Glaucus in divination, but, angry at being made a prisoner, caused the boy to forget everything when Polyidos finally left Crete. The word glaukos means gleaming, bluish green or gray, perhaps describing the appearance of a blind eye if glaucoma (cataract) derives from it. Is the name Glaucus a reference to sight, or blindness, physical or otherwise? It is also curious that meropia is a condition of partial blindness.
Another Merope was daughter of Dionysus's son Oenopion, king of Chios; Orion fell in love with her, and Oenopion refused to give her up, instead having him blinded. Orion regained his sight and sought vengeance, but was killed by Artemis, or by a scorpion, or by some other means (many versions).
Yet another Merope and her sister Cleothera (with alternate names of Cameiro and Clytië for the two of them) were orphaned daughters of Pandareus.
Still another was mother of Æpytus by Cresphontes, king of Messenia. Her husband was murdered by Polyphontes, who claimed both her and the throne, but was later killed by Æpytus to avenge his father's death.
One last, more often known as Periboea, was wife of Polybus, king of Corinth. The two of them adopted the infant Oedipus after his father Laius left him to die, heeding a prophecy that his son would kill him, which, of course, he eventually did.
Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Lacedæmon, founder of Sparta, to which she was thus an important goddess. In some versions of the story, she was unwilling to yield to Zeus, and was disguised by Artemis as a hind (female red deer) to elude him; but he eventually caught her and begot on her Lacedæmon, whereupon she hanged herself.
Another Taygete was niece to the first. She married Lacedæmon and bore Himerus, who drowned himself in a river after Aphrodite caused him to deflower his sister Cleodice. One of the Taygetes may have been mother to Tantalus, who was tormented in Hades with thirst and hunger for offending the gods; however his parentage is uncertain; his mother may instead be Pluto (not the Roman version of Hades), daughter of either Cronus and Rhea or Oceanus and Tethys, and his father Zeus or Tmolus.
Astromorphosis
One day the great hunter Orion saw the Pleiads (perhaps with their mother, or perhaps just one of them; see Merope above) as they walked through the Boeotian countryside, and fancied them. He pursued them for seven years, until Zeus answered their prayers for delivery and transformed them into birds (doves or pidgeons), placing them among the stars. Later on, when Orion was killed (many conflicting stories as to how), he was placed in the heavens behind the Pleiades, immortalizing the chase.
Lost Pleiad
The 'lost Pleiad' legend came about to explain why only six are easily visible to the unaided eye (I have my own thoughts on this). This sister is variously said to be Electra, who veiled her face at the burning of Troy, appearing to mortals afterwards only as a comet; or Merope, who was shamed for marrying a mortal; (was Sterope shamed for the same reason??) or Celæno, who was struck by a thunderbolt. Missing Pleiad myths also appear in other cultures, prompting Burnham to speculate stellar variability (Pleione?) as a physical basis. It is difficult to know if the modern naming pays attention to any of this. Celæno is the faintest at present, but the "star" Asterope is actually two stars, each of which is fainter than Celæno if considered separately.
The information above was taken from:
- Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Revised & Enlarged Edition, Robert Burnham Jr., 1976, Dover Publications Inc.
- Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1899, 1963, Dover reprint (Note: Allen's text on individual Pleiades stars can be found at Alcyone Systems.)
- Star Lore of All Ages, William Tyler Olcott, 1911, 1931, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
- Star Tales, Ian Ridpath, 1988, Universe Books
- The Age of Fable, Thomas Bullfinch, 1942, Heritage Press
- The Greek Myths, Robert Graves, 1960, Pelican Books
- The Reader's Encyclopedia 2/e, William Rose Benet, 1965, Thomas Y. Crowell Company
- American Heritage Dictionary, 1965
- Fundamentals of Physics 2/e, David Halliday and Robert Resnick, 1986, John Wiley & Sons, New York
If you are aware of additional information or corrections, please let me know!
This page is maintained by
Steven Gibson
http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/
H.O.B. note: It's rather interesting that in the above list of "Sisters", "Alcyone or Halcyone" is the one who wards off evil storms, yet in our present age we have the word "Cyclone" which, in a sense, is an evil storm. The human mind is indeed a strange contraption. It's like some sort of ambivalent (schizophrenic) refraction has taken place by creating a mirror-image (opposite) reflection of something good and altered it (through a name variation) into something bad.
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com