Hyades (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Hyades (Ancient Greek: Ὑάδες, romanized: Hyádes, popularly "rain-makers" or "the rainy ones"; from ὕω, hýō, 'I fall as rain', but probably from ὗς, hŷs, 'swine'[1]; (pronounced /ˈhaɪ.ədiːz/[2] or /ˈhaɪə.diːz/, HIGH-uh-deez; ) are a sisterhood of nymphs that bring rain.

Family

The Hyades were daughters of Atlas (by either Pleione or Aethra, one of the Oceanids) and sisters of Hyas in most tellings, although one version gives their parents as Hyas and Boeotia.[3][4][5] The Hyades are sisters to the Pleiades and the Hesperides.

Names

Their number varies from three in the earliest sources to fifteen in the late ones. The names are also variable, according to the mythographer, and include:

Comparative table of Hyades' names, number and family
Relation Name Sources
Hes.[6] Thales Eurip. Dio. Hyg.[5] Theon[6] Serv.[7] Hesych Eust.[8] Unknown
Parentage Atlas and Aethra ✓ ✓
Atlas and Pleione ✓
Hyas and Boeotia ✓
Cadmilus ✓
Erechtheus ✓
Hyas and Aethra ✓
Number 5 2 3 3 5 3 5 1 3 2
Names Phaisyle ('filtered light') or Aesyle ✓ not stated ✓ not stated ✓
Coronis ('crow') ✓ ✓ ✓
Cleeia ('famous') or Cleis ✓ ✓
Phaeo ('dim') ✓
Eudora ('generous') ✓ ✓ ✓
Philia ✓
Ambrosia ✓ ✓
Polyxo ✓
Pytho ✓
Synecho ✓
Baccho ✓
Cardie ✓
Niseis ✓
Dione ✓
Thyone ✓
Prodice ✓

Additionally, Thyone and Prodice were supposed to be daughters of Hyas by Aethra, and have been added to the group of stars.

Mythology

The main myth concerning the Hyades accounts for their collective name and provides an etiology for their weepy raininess: after the death of Hyas in a hunting accident his sisters (or daughters) the Hyades wept from their grief.[9] Jupiter/Zeus changed them into a cluster of stars, the Hyades, set in the head of Taurus.[10][11][12]

The Greeks believed that the heliacal rising and setting of the Hyades star cluster always accompanied rain, hence the association of the Hyades (sisters of Hyas) and the Hyades (daughters of ocean) with the constellation of the Hyades (rainy ones).[5][13][14]

The Hyades also functioned as the tutors of Dionysus in some tellings of the latter's infancy,[3] and as such are equated with the Nysiads, the nymphs who also traditionally cared for Dionysus,[15] as well as with other reputed nurses of the god—the Lamides,[16] the Dodonides[5] and the nymphs of Naxos.[17] Some sources relate that they were subject to aging, but Dionysus, to express his gratitude for their having raised him, asked Medea to restore their youth.[18][19][20]

In Tennyson's poem, Ulysses recalls his travels of old:

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink -
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd -
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those -
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when -
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades -
Vext the dim sea ..."[21]

In astronomy

Main article: Hyades (star cluster)

A well-studied star cluster in Taurus and the open cluster nearest Earth is named after the Hyades of Greek mythology.

See also

  • Nephele (Ancient Greek rain goddess)

Notes

  1. ^ "Hyades". Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Hyades". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ a b Hyginus, Fabulae 192
  4. ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.169 ff.
  5. ^ a b c d Hyginus, De astronomia 2.21
  6. ^ a b Hesiod, Astronomy fr. 2 (in Theon on Aratus, Phaenomena 254)
  7. ^ Servius on Virgil's Georgics 1.138
  8. ^ Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 1156
  9. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 192 & 248
  10. ^ "Taurus' face gleams with seven rays of fire, which Greek sailors call Hyades from their rain-word." (Ovid, Fasti 5.164). In Ancient Greek, "to rain" is hyein.
  11. ^ Boyse, Samuel (1758) [1753]. "6: Of Atlas". A New Pantheon: Or, Fabulous History of the Heathen Gods, Heroes, Goddesses, &c. ... Adorn'd with Figures Depicted from Ancient Paintings, ... To which is Added, a Discourse on the Theology of the Ancients, ... As Also an Explanation of Their Ancient Mythology ... Dublin: J. Exshaw. p. 15. Retrieved 22 March 2026. [...] the Hyades [...]. These Virgins griev'd so immoderately for the Death of their Brother Hyas, devoured by a Lion, that Jupiter, out of Compassion, changed them into Stars, and plac'd them in the Head of Taurus, where they still retain thir Grief, their Rising and Setting being attended with extraordinary Rains.
  12. ^ Ovid (1877). Sidgwick, Arthur (ed.). P. Ovidii Nasonis Fastorum liber VI. Pitt press series: Latin authors. Cambridge: University Press. p. 83. Retrieved 22 March 2026. [...] according to one account these nymphs of Dodona in Epirus were changed by Zeus into the seven Hyades. [...] The Hyades are placed in the forehead of the Bull, one of the Zodiac signs [...].
  13. ^ Hesiod, Works and Days 609 ff
  14. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.43.111; Cicero also points out that the Romans wrongly refer to the Hyades as Suculae (Piglets), as though the name Hyades was derived from hys "sow", rather than from hyein "to rain".
  15. ^ Apollodorus, 3.4.3.
  16. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 9.28 ff.; in 14.143, the identification is explicit
  17. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 5.52.1; the Naxian nymphs were named Philia, Coronis and Cleide
  18. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.294
  19. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 182
  20. ^ Suidas, s.v. απεψησάμην
  21. ^ "Ulysses". The Poetry Foundation. 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2024-09-18.

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Hyades".
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