Pleiades

Pleiades

                                         The Pleiades were seven mountain nymph daughters of the Titan Atlas and Pleione. Their names were Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. Their leader was Maia, the mother of Hermes by Zeus. Five of others were also loved by gods, becoming ancestresses of various royal families including those of Troy  and Sparta. The seventh one in some version was Merope, who became invisible from shame, because she alone among her sisters had intercourse with a moral man. In other version it was Electra, who became invisible because of her grief at the destruction of Dardanur (ancestor of the Trojan royal family). 
                                               According to some versions, the Pleiades, along with their half sisters the Hyades, were the companions to Artemis. The lustful giant Orion pursued the Pleiades named Maia, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope after he fell in love with their beauty and grace. Artemis asked Zeus to protect the Pleiades and in turn, Zeus turned them into stars. Artemis was angry because she no longer could see her companions and had her brother, Apollo, send a giant scorpion to chase and kill Orion. Zeus then turned Orion into a constellation to further pursue the Pleiades in the skies.



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