in fabulous history, the seven daughters of Atlas king of Mauritania, and Pleione, who were so called from their mother. They were Maia, Electra, Taygete, Asterope, Merope, Halcyone, and Celoeno, who were also called Atlantides, from their father Atlas. These princesses were carried off by Busiris 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, until Jupiter, 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.

These stars are so called from the Greek πλεῖν, navigare, to sail; as being terrible to mariners, by reason of the rains and storms which frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergiliae, 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 Pleiadium.