THE PLEIADES.
"But people in general have been deceived by fancying the πελειάδες here spoken of to be birds, first of all from the poetical form of the word, because of the insertion of the letter ε; and secondly, because they have taken the word τρήρωνες, 'trembling,' as an epithet only of doves; since, owing to its weakness, that is a very cautious bird; and when he calls it τρήρων, this word is derived from τρέω, and τρέω is the same as εὐλαβέομαι, to be cautious. But still there is a good deal of reason in attributing the same characteristic also to the Pleiades: for the fable is, that they are always fleeing from Orion, since their mother Pleione is constantly pursued by Orion.
80. "And the variation of the name, so that the Pleiades are called both πέλειαι and πελειάδες, occurs in many poets. First of all, Myro the Byzantian admirably caught the feeling of the Homeric poems, saying in her poem entitled Memory, that the Pleiades convey ambrosia to Jupiter. But Crates the critic, endeavouring to appropriate to himself the credit due to her, produces that assertion as his own. Simonides also has called the Pleiades Πελειάδες, in the following lines:—
And may great Mercury, whose protecting pow'r
Watches o'er contests, Maia's mighty son,
Grant you success. But Atlas was the sire
Of seven dark-hair'd daughters, beautiful,
Surpassing all the maidens upon earth,
And now in heaven they're call'd Peleiades.
Here he distinctly calls the Pleiades Πελειάδες, for they it was who were the daughters of Atlas; as Pindar says—
And it is natural
That great Orion should advance
Not far from the seven Pleiades, at the tail (ὀρίας).
For, in the arrangement of the stars, Orion is not far from the Pleiades; from which circumstance has arisen the fable about them, that they, with their mother Pleione, are always fleeing from Orion. But when he calls the Pleiades ὄριαι here, he means οὔριαι, only he has left out the v, because the Pleiades are close to the tail of the Bull. And Æschylus has spoken still more plainly, playing on their name on account of the resemblance of its sound, where he says—
The seven celebrated daughters of
The mighty Atlas, much bewail'd with tears
Their father's heaven-supporting toil; where they
Now take the form of night-appearing visions,
The wingless Peleiades.
For he calls them here wingless on account of the similarity of the sound of their name to that of the birds Ππελειάδες. And Myro herself also speaks in the same manner—
The mighty Jove was nourish'd long in Crete,
Nor yet had any of the heav'nly beings
E'er recognised their king; meanwhile he grew
In all his limbs; and him the trembling doves
Cherish'd, while hidden in the holy cave,
Bringing him, from the distant streams of ocean,
Divine ambrosia: and a mighty eagle,
Incessant drawing with his curved beak
Nectar from out the rock, triumphant brought
The son of Saturn's necessary drink.
Him, when the God of mighty voice had cast
His father Saturn from his unjust throne,
He made immortal, and in heaven placed.
And so, too, did he give the trembling doves (πελειάσιν)
Deserved honour; they who are to men
Winters and summer's surest harbingers.