"The milk-white Bull with golden horns
Led on the new-born year,"
we see in the neck of TAURUS, the Pleiades, and in his face the Hyades, "which Grecia from their showering names," and of whom the brilliant Aldebarán is the chief; while to the southwestward is that most splendid of all the constellations, Orion, with Betelgueux in his right shoulder, Bellatrix in his left shoulder, Rigel on the left foot, and in his belt the three stars known as the Three Kings, and now as the Yard and Ell. Orion, ran the legend, persecuted the Pleiades; and to save them from his fury, Jupiter placed them in the Heavens, where he still pursues them, but in vain. They, with Arcturus and the Bands of Orion, are mentioned in the Book of Job. They are usually called the Seven Stars, and it is said there were seven, before the fall of Troy; though now only six are visible.
The Pleiades were so named from a Greek word signifying to sail. In all ages they have been observed for signs and seasons. Virgil says that the sailors gave names to "the Pleiades, Hyades, and the Northern Car: Pleiadas, Hyadas, Claramque Lycaonis Arcton." And Palinurus, he says,—
Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, Geminosque Triones, Armatumque auro circumspicit Oriona,—
studied Arcturus and the rainy Hyades and the Twin Triones, and Orion cinctured with gold.
Taurus was the prince and leader of the celestial host for more than two thousand years; and when his head set with the Sun about the last of May, the Scorpion was seen to rise in the Southeast.
The Pleiades were sometimes called Vergiliœ, or the Virgins of Spring;
because the Sun entered this cluster of stars in the season of blossoms.
Their Syrian name was Succoth, or Succothbeneth, derived from a
Chaldean word signifying to speculate or observe.
The Hyades are five stars in the form of a V, 11° southeast of the
Pleiades. The Greeks counted them as seven. When the Vernal Equinox was
in Taurus, Aldebarán led up the starry host; and as he rose in the East,
Aries was about 27° high.
When he was close upon the meridian, the Heavens presented their most magnificent appearance. Capella was a little further from the meridian, to the north; and Orion still further from it to the southward. Procyon, Sirius, Castor and Pollux had climbed about half-way from the horizon to the meridian. Regulus had just risen upon the ecliptic. The Virgin still lingered below the horizon. Fomalhaut was half-way to the meridian in the Southwest; and to the Northwest were the brilliant constellations, Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda; while the Pleiades had just passed the meridian.
ORION is visible to all the habitable world. The equinoctial line passes through the centre of it. When Aldebarán rose in the East, the Three Kings in Orion followed him; and as Taurus set, the Scorpion, by whose sting it was said Orion died, rose in the East.