PLEIADES, in astronomy, an assemblage of seven stars, in the neck of the constellation Taurus.
They are thus called from the Greek πλῆς, navigare, "to sail;" as being terrible to mariners, by reason of the rains and storms that frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergilia, from ver, "spring;" because of their rising about the time of the vernal equinox. The largest is of the third magnitude, and is called lucide pleiadum.