Pleiades
For Mikkjel, on the occasion of your birthday.
Lie back love, in my arms. Stare at the stars with me, let the night caress you and the dew from the grass seep into your back. If you're cold, I am here, but look there.
Do you see the Hunter striding across the heavens? He is Orion, and see, there? He chases Merope and her sisters across the sky. She is the youngest of the seven, and cannot be easily seen from the Earth. The Greeks said that, of the Seven, she was the only one to love and wed a mortal man. She bore many sons to Sisyphus, but mortality was her choice and so she faded away.
Of course, where there is one story there is always another. Electra, the second of the Seven, was loved by mighty Zeus the lord of Olympus. She bore him two sons, Dardanus and Iasion, and the first of these became the great ancestor of the Kings of Troy. So it is said that she is the sister unseen, that she hides behind her veil, grieving for the city that fell so many years ago.
Yes, I'll tell you about the others. Maia eldest and Taygete, next after Electra, were also beloved by the god Zeus. The first was the mother of Hermes, the guardian of travellers and tricksters and messenger to the gods of Olympus. The other bore him Lacedaemon, also a name of the city known as Sparta. Alcyone and Celaeno bore children to Poseidon of the seas, and the war god Ares fathered a child by Sterope.
Their father was Atlas the titan, and their mother the sea nymph Pleione. You will know the name of the nymph Calypso (she trapped Odysseus on her island), she is their sister, along with the Hyades and the Hespirides.
I was getting to that, my love. I mentioned Orion, did I not? Well, the story has it that after Atlas was given the burden of the Earth to shoulder, he began to pursue the sisters. Zeus transformed them into doves so they could flee the Hunter, and then into stars as a comofrt to their father. Although, of course, Orion pursues them still.
Where there is one story (I always say and have always said, and daresay I always will) there is another. The father of the Seven, Atlas was given the terrible burden of the world to bear upon his shoulders. The sisters grieved for their father, and all seven took their lives because they could not bear the sadness of his fate. Yes, I know I told you they were immortal, save the youngest. There is always more than one story, and neither one nor the other must agree. In fact, they rarely do. The Lord Zeus was so moved by the death of the Sisters that he bore them into the heavens and set them there as stars.
Of course, there are more stories than the Greek. Some say thre are seven maidens who dance upon the stars, set there by the gods to dance forever. Others say that they are women giving birth. A legend of the Americas says that they are seven maidens of great beauty who are pursued by bears, and that the gods lifted them into the sky to escape their hunters. Yes, you see that it is familiar. For where there is one story there is another, and where there are many stories, there are always fewer than first appear. A similar tale is told in Australia, of maidens turned to stars to escape an unwanted suitor.
Yes, you want to know what they mean to me. My learning, love, is all Classical in nature. But in my home, upon my land and in the skies of its people, these same stars signal that the year begins anew. A story of the Sisters that is told in your home as well. It is rather less romantic, I am afraid. The Norse believed the stars to be the goddess Freya's chickens.
You look tired. It is late, of course, or we'd not be alone here in the quiet of the night gazing into the stars together. Don't worry, my love, they'll be there tomorrow. The stars and their stories both.
Lie back love, in my arms. Stare at the stars with me, let the night caress you and the dew from the grass seep into your back. If you're cold, I am here, but look there.
Do you see the Hunter striding across the heavens? He is Orion, and see, there? He chases Merope and her sisters across the sky. She is the youngest of the seven, and cannot be easily seen from the Earth. The Greeks said that, of the Seven, she was the only one to love and wed a mortal man. She bore many sons to Sisyphus, but mortality was her choice and so she faded away.
Of course, where there is one story there is always another. Electra, the second of the Seven, was loved by mighty Zeus the lord of Olympus. She bore him two sons, Dardanus and Iasion, and the first of these became the great ancestor of the Kings of Troy. So it is said that she is the sister unseen, that she hides behind her veil, grieving for the city that fell so many years ago.
Yes, I'll tell you about the others. Maia eldest and Taygete, next after Electra, were also beloved by the god Zeus. The first was the mother of Hermes, the guardian of travellers and tricksters and messenger to the gods of Olympus. The other bore him Lacedaemon, also a name of the city known as Sparta. Alcyone and Celaeno bore children to Poseidon of the seas, and the war god Ares fathered a child by Sterope.
Their father was Atlas the titan, and their mother the sea nymph Pleione. You will know the name of the nymph Calypso (she trapped Odysseus on her island), she is their sister, along with the Hyades and the Hespirides.
I was getting to that, my love. I mentioned Orion, did I not? Well, the story has it that after Atlas was given the burden of the Earth to shoulder, he began to pursue the sisters. Zeus transformed them into doves so they could flee the Hunter, and then into stars as a comofrt to their father. Although, of course, Orion pursues them still.
Where there is one story (I always say and have always said, and daresay I always will) there is another. The father of the Seven, Atlas was given the terrible burden of the world to bear upon his shoulders. The sisters grieved for their father, and all seven took their lives because they could not bear the sadness of his fate. Yes, I know I told you they were immortal, save the youngest. There is always more than one story, and neither one nor the other must agree. In fact, they rarely do. The Lord Zeus was so moved by the death of the Sisters that he bore them into the heavens and set them there as stars.
Of course, there are more stories than the Greek. Some say thre are seven maidens who dance upon the stars, set there by the gods to dance forever. Others say that they are women giving birth. A legend of the Americas says that they are seven maidens of great beauty who are pursued by bears, and that the gods lifted them into the sky to escape their hunters. Yes, you see that it is familiar. For where there is one story there is another, and where there are many stories, there are always fewer than first appear. A similar tale is told in Australia, of maidens turned to stars to escape an unwanted suitor.
Yes, you want to know what they mean to me. My learning, love, is all Classical in nature. But in my home, upon my land and in the skies of its people, these same stars signal that the year begins anew. A story of the Sisters that is told in your home as well. It is rather less romantic, I am afraid. The Norse believed the stars to be the goddess Freya's chickens.
You look tired. It is late, of course, or we'd not be alone here in the quiet of the night gazing into the stars together. Don't worry, my love, they'll be there tomorrow. The stars and their stories both.