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]