Hyas

Hyas was a young hunter in Greek mythology, the son of Atlas and a brother of the Hyades. He was killed by a wild animal in Libya, and his sisters grieved for him so much that they became stars. The Hyades, the cluster of stars in the head of the constellation Taurus, were named after him.

Family of Hyas

Ovid says that Hyas was born before Atlas had to carry the sky on his shoulders. His mother was Aethra, a daughter of Oceanus, who bore Atlas both Hyas and the Nymphs, and Hyas was the elder of them (Fasti 5.169–172). Hyginus, quoting the poet Musaeus, agrees that Atlas and Aethra, a daughter of Oceanus, had fifteen daughters, of whom five were called the Hyades because their brother was Hyas, whom they loved more than anyone (Astronomica 2.21). In this version the Pleiades are their sisters as well. Hyginus also records another view, from Alexander, according to which the Pleiades were daughters of Atlas and Pleione, a daughter of Oceanus (Astronomica 2.21).

The Death of Hyas

According to Ovid, Hyas was a handsome boy who first terrified timid deer and took hares as his harmless prey. When he grew older, he dared to attack boars and rough wild beasts at close quarters. While looking for the lair and cubs of a lioness, he himself became the bloody prey of the Libyan beast (Fasti 5.173–178). Hyginus says only that Hyas was killed by a lion while hunting (Astronomica 2.21).

The Hyades

Hyas’ mother and his sisters mourned him, and Atlas as well. In Ovid, both parents were moved by the sisters’ devotion, and that devotion won the sisters a place in the sky: “it gave them heaven; Hyas gave the name” (Fasti 5.179–182). Hyginus, following Musaeus, tells it more harshly: five of the sisters, overcome by constant lamentation, are said to have died, and because they grieved so much for his death they were called the Hyades; of the other ten sisters, seven then killed themselves in turn, and from this the Pleiades were named (Astronomica 2.21). Hesiod, in a poem about the stars known only from quotations, called the Hyades nymphs like the Graces, and gave their names as Phaesyle, Coronis, Cleeia, Phaeo and Eudora; an ancient commentator on Aratus says that Zeus made them into the stars called the Hyades (Hesiod, fragment from the Astronomy, quoted in the scholia to Aratus 254). Ovid points out that Greek sailors called these seven stars on the face of Taurus the Hyades from the rain (Fasti 5.165–166).

Other Stories of the Hyades

The Hyades were sometimes not the sisters of Hyas at all. Hyginus cites Pherecydes for seven Hyades, Ambrosia, Eudora, Pedile, Coronis, Polyxo, Phyto and Thyone, who nursed the infant Dionysus. They were driven away by Lycurgus; in Pherecydes’ account they carried the child to Thebes and handed him to Ino, and for this Zeus rewarded them with a place among the stars (Astronomica 2.21). Apollodorus too says that Hermes took the infant Dionysus to the nymphs of Nysa in Asia, whom Zeus afterwards changed into stars and named the Hyades (Library 3.4.3).

Hyas Sources

Ovid, Fasti 5.165–182; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21; Hesiod, Astronomy (fragment quoted in the scholia on Aratus 254); Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3.

See Also: Hyades, Atlas, Aethra, Pleiades, Zeus, Dionysus