in fabulous history, the seven daughters of Atlas king of Mauritania and Pleione, were thus called from their mother. They were Maia, Electra, Taygete, Asterope, Merope, Halcyone, and Celaeno; and were also called Atlantides, from their father Atlas. These princesses were carried off by Buthis king of Egypt; but Hercules having conquered him, delivered them to their father: yet they afterwards suffered a new persecution from Orion, who pursued them five years, till Jove, being prevailed on by their prayers, took them up into the heavens, where they form the constellation which bears their name.

in astronomy, an assemblage of seven stars, in the neck of the constellation Taurus.

They are thus called from the Greek πλεῖν, navigate, "to sail;" as being terrible to mariners, by reason of the rains and storms that frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergilium, from ver, "spring;" because of their rising about the time of the vernal equinox. The largest is of the third magnitude, and is called lucida pleiadum.