from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Pleiades \Ple"ia*des\ (?; 277), n. pl. [L., fr. Gr. (?)]
1. (Myth.) The seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph
Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a
constellation in the sky.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Astron.) A group of small stars in the neck of the
constellation Taurus; -- called also {the seven sisters}.
--Job xxxviii. 31.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Alcyone, the brightest of these, a star of the third
magnitude, was considered by M[aum]dler the central
point around which our universe is revolving, but such
a notion has been thoroughly discounted by modern
observations. Only six pleiads are distinctly visible
to the naked eye, whence the ancients supposed that a
sister had concealed herself out of shame for having
loved a mortal, Sisyphus.
[1913 Webster +PJC]