Hyades

The Hyades were a group of nymphs who became a cluster of stars in the head of the constellation Taurus. Their name was linked with rain. The ancient sources give two chief stories about them: they were the nurses of the infant Dionysus, or they were the sisters of Hyas, who died of grief when he was killed.

The Hyades in the Sky

The Hyades are among the oldest named stars in Greek poetry. Homer places the Pleiades, the Hyades and Orion on the shield of Achilles (Homer, Iliad 18.486). Hesiod tells farmers to plough when the Pleiades, the Hyades and Orion begin to set (Hesiod, Works and Days 615). Virgil calls them the “rainy Hyades” (Virgil, Aeneid 1.744, 3.516). Aratus describes them as stars set on the forehead of the Bull (Aratus, Phaenomena, on the Bull). Hyginus says that the face of the Bull is formed by the stars called Hyades (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21).

Nurses of Dionysus

In Apollodorus, Zeus took the infant Dionysus from Hera’s anger, and Hermes brought him to the nymphs who lived at Nysa in Asia; Zeus later changed these nymphs into stars and named them the Hyades (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3).

Hyginus reports Pherecydes of Athens, who made the Hyades seven in number and nurses of Liber (Dionysus). They had earlier been called the Dodonian nymphs, and their names were Ambrosia, Eudora, Pedile, Coronis, Polyxo, Phyto and Thyone. They were driven away by Lycurgus. According to Asclepiades, all except Ambrosia fled to Thetis; according to Pherecydes, they carried Dionysus to Thebes and gave him to Ino. Zeus rewarded them by placing them among the stars (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21). Hesiod, in his book about the stars, named the sisters of Hyas as Phaesyle, Coronis, Cleeia, Phaeo and Eudora, and said that Zeus made them the stars called Hyades (Hesiod, Astronomy, fragment quoted in the ancient commentary on Aratus 254).

Hyas and His Sisters

In another account, quoted from Musaeus, Atlas and Aethra, a daughter of Oceanus, had fifteen daughters. Five were the Hyades, so called because their brother Hyas was dearly loved by his sisters. When Hyas was killed by a lion while hunting, the five sisters mourned so constantly that they are said to have died, and for this reason they were named Hyades. The other ten sisters decided to join them in death, and seven did so; these are the Pleiades, so named because the majority came to the same decision (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21). Another writer, Alexander, derived the name Hyades from Hyas and Boeotia, as their parents, and the Pleiades from Pleione and Atlas (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21).

Family

• Father: Atlas, in the account quoted by Hyginus from Musaeus.
• Mother: Aethra, daughter of Oceanus, in the same account. Pleione is named as the mother of the Pleiades, not of the Hyades.
• Brother: Hyas, killed by a lion.
• Sisters: the Pleiades, in the Musaeus account. In Pherecydes the Hyades are Dodonian nymphs, and no parents are given.

Hyades Sources

Homer, Iliad 18.486; Hesiod, Works and Days 615, and Hesiod's lines on the stars preserved in the scholia to Aratus 254; Aratus, Phaenomena; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3; Virgil, Aeneid 1.744, 3.516; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21, which reports Pherecydes, Asclepiades, Musaeus and Alexander.

See Also: Atlas, Aethra, Hyas, Pleiades, Dionysus, Nysiads, Ino, Lycurgus