PLEIADES, an assemblage of seven stars, in the neck of the constellation Taurus. These stars are so called from the Greek πλεον, to sail, as being terrible to mariners, by reason of the rains and storms which frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergilia, from ver, spring;
VOL. XVIII.
because of their rising about the time of the vernal Pleonasm equinox.