Pleiades in folklore and literature

The high visibility of the star cluster Pleiades in the night sky and its position along the ecliptic (which approximates to the Solar System's common planetary plane) has given it importance in many cultures, ancient and modern.

[6][5] The Mesopotamian cuneiform texts of the MUL.APIN, which were produced from the seventh century BC onwards, describe Pleiades leap rules for the intercalation of months.

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki ("Rashi") suggested even more stars within the cluster when he commented on the Talmud with a question, "What is meant by Kimah?"

[10] According to Jewish folklore, when two fallen angels named Azazel and Shemhazai made it to the Earth, they fell strongly in love with the women of humankind.

Thus ülker çerig literally means 'an army made up of a group of detachments', which forms an apt simile for a star cluster.

[21] To the Bronze Age people of Europe, such as the Celts (and probably considerably earlier), the Pleiades were associated with mourning and with funerals, since at that time in history, on the cross-quarter day [dubious – discuss] between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice (see Samhain, also Halloween or All Souls Day), which was a festival devoted to the remembrance of the dead, the cluster rose in the eastern sky as the Sun's light faded in the evening.

In Lithuanian folk songs this constellation is often personified as a benevolent brother who helps orphan girls to marry or walks soldiers along the fields.

The constellation of the Pleiades is known by several names in Belarusian tradition, such as Sitechko ('a sieve'), and, in a legend from the Horvats, there are seven vil ('spirits of deceased maidens') who dance around in a circle.

[35] In a version collected by Vuk Karadzic and published in the Archiv für slavische Philologie with the title Die Plejaden, a pair of brothers, Dragoman and Milan, lose their sister to a dragon and try to get her back.

[36] In another version by Karadzic, translated as Abermals die Plejaden ("Once again, the Pleiades"), a human prince recruits the services of five brothers, sons of a "dragon-woman", to rescue a princess.

[36] It was common among the indigenous peoples of the Americas to measure keenness of vision by the number of stars the viewer could see in the Pleiades, a practice which was also used in historical Europe, especially in Greece.

[38] Dutch cartographer Claudius de Goeje reported that the Pleiades constellation among the Arawak is named wīwa yó-koro and marks the beginning of the year.

Their year began when priests first remarked the asterism heliacal rising in the east, immediately before the Sun's dawn light obliterated the view of the stars.

[41] Paul Goble, a British-American author who often depicted Native American stories, tells a Blackfoot legend that he says is told by other tribes as well.

[47][48] The Hopi determined the passage of time for nighttime rituals in the winter by observing the Pleiades (Tsöötsöqam)[49][50] and Orion's belt (Hotòmqam) through a kiva entrance hatch as they passed overhead.

[63] The Onondaga people's version of the story has lazy children who prefer to dance over their daily chores ignoring the warnings of the Bright Shining Old Man.

[56][64] In a tale attributed to Pacific Coast indigenous populations, the Pleiades are a family of seven sisters who, fed up with their husbands (all brothers) not sharing with them their game, want to be changed into stars.

[68] The Shasta people tell a story of the children of raccoon killed by coyote avenging their father's death and then rising into the sky to form the Pleiades.

[70] In a tale attributed to the Wyandot people, seven Singing Maidens, daughters of the Sun and the Moon, who live in Sky Land, descend to Earth and dance with human children.

[73] To the Ban Raji people, who live semi-nomadically across western Nepal and Uttarakhand, the Pleiades are the "Seven sisters-in-law, and brother-in-law" (Hatai halyou daa Salla).

[citation needed] They hold or held that when they can first make them out annually over the mountains straddling the upper Kali they feel happy to see their ancient kin.

Karthigai (கார்த்திகை) in Tamil refers to the six wives of the seven rishis (sages), the seventh being Arundhati the wife of Vasistha which relates to the star Alcor in Ursa Major.

{{{annotations}}} In Japan, the Pleiades are known as Subaru (昴) which means "coming together" or "cluster" in Japanese and have given their name to the car manufacturer whose logo incorporates six stars to represent the five companies that merged into one.

It also goes by many other names, directly transliterated from English (Korean: 플레이아데스) and translated literally (일곱으로 된 한 벌 or 7인조 referring to "seven sisters").

The story tells that a poor elderly couple who lived in a forest had raised a family of chickens: a mother hen and her six (or alternately seven) chicks.

In the western desert region and cultural bloc, they are said to be seven sisters fleeing from the unwelcome attentions of a man represented by some of the stars in Orion, the hunter.

[98][99] The Wirangu people of the west coast of South Australia have a creation story embodied in a songline of great significance based on the Pleiades.

[105][106] Across the Bantu languages of Southern Africa, the Pleiades are associated with agriculture,[107][108][109][110] from a verb -lima 'cultivate',[111] e.g., Giryama kirimira,[112] Kaguru chilimia;[107] Xhosa and Zulu isilimela; Sotho and Tswana selemela; Tsonga shirimela, Venda tshilimela;[113] Karanga chirimera; Nyabungu kelemera; Nyasa lemila.

In related Sesotho (of far Southern Africa's Basotho (people of Sotho)) the Pleiades are called "Seleme se setshehadi" ("the female planter").

Another etiological tale, from a Slavic source, is The Seven Stars: a princess is kidnapped by a dragon, so the high chamberlain seeks a "Dragon-mother" and her sons, who each possess extraordinary abilities, to rescue her.