Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/546

410 proof of the influence of the Pleiades on the reckoning of the year."

The Egyptians called this star group "Athur-ai" or "Atauria," meaning the stars of Athyr (Hathor), a name also given the Seven Stars by the Chaldeans and Hebrews. From this title is derived the Latin Taurus, and the German Thier. It is possible that this title was somehow connected with the Greek letter tau, and the sacred scarabæus or tau beetle of Egypt. It has also been suggested that the "tors" and Arthur's Seat, which were names given to British hilltops, may be connected with the "high places" of the worship of the Pleiades. Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh is a notable example of such a site.

The Arabians called the Pleiades, "Atauria" signifying "the little ones."

There appear to be three distinct derivations of the word Pleiades. First, from the Greek word, meaning "to sail," the heliacal rising and setting of these stars marking the opening and closing of the season of navigation among the Greeks.

Second, from, meaning "a flight of doves." Hesiod, Pindar, and Simonides all use this word. The doves or pigeons were considered as flying from the mighty hunter Orion. They were also said to be the doves that carried ambrosia to the infant Zeus.

D'Arcy Thompson asserts that the Pleiad is in many languages associated with bird names, and considers that the bird on the bull's back on coins of Eretria and Dicæa represents the Pleiades. We have a reduplication of this strange position of a bird among the constellational figures in the crow perched on the coils of Hydra.

A third derivation of the title of this group is from , meaning "full" or in the plural "many." This derivation is considered to be the correct one by the weight of authority.

Many of the Greek temples were oriented to the Seven Stars, notably temples erected as early as 1530 and 1150