Pleione (mythology)
Pleione (Ancient Greek: Πληιόνη or Πλειόνη[1] means 'sailing queen'[2]) was an Oceanid nymph in Greek mythology and mother of the Pleiades.
Mythology
Pleione lived in a southern region of Greece called Arcadia, on a mountain named Mount Kyllini. She married the Titan Atlas and gave birth to the Hyades, Hyas and the Pleiades. She was also the protectress of sailing. In different stories, Pleione had a different number of children (sometimes 3, 4, 5 or 7). Among her grandchildren were the god Hermes and the demigod Iasion.
In some accounts, when Pleione once was travelling through Boeotia with her daughters, Orion who was accompanying her, fell in love with the mother and tried to attack her. She escaped but Orion sought her for seven years and couldn't find her. Until at last, Zeus pitying the girls, changed them into stars which still continue to fly from Orion.[3][4]
Popular culture
In the 2007 fantasy novel The Titan's Curse, Pleione is named as the mother of Zoë Nightshade, a follower of the goddess Artemis and a former Hesperid. It is, however, erroneously implied that Pleione is the mother of the Hesperides, rather than Hesperius.
References
- Harry Thurston Peck's Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898) indicates that the 'o' has traditionally been short (and hence unstressed) in English pronunciation.
- Robert Graves (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. s.v. Alcyone & Ceyx. ISBN 978-0143106715.
- Scholia, on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.309
- Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21.6
Sources
- Pleiades (mythology). Encarta Reference Library. CD-ROM. 2002 ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corp., 2001