Hebrew - Kimah: a cluster
Egypt - the Pleaides represent the goddess Neith, the "divine mother and lady of heaven".
- Japan - the Pleiades are known as Subaru, and have given their name to the car manufacturer whose logo incorporates six stars. The Subaru Telescope, located in Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii, is named after the Pleiades.
Hindu:
- the Hindu God Kartikeya means Him of the Pleiades's.
- the Flames of Agni (the god of Fire): the divinities of fire in its beneficent form and the wet nurses for Kumara, the god of War.
- Astrology: In Western astrology they represent coping with sorrow and were considered a single one of the medieval fixed stars. As such, they are associated with quartz and fennel. In Hindu astrology the Pleiades were known as the asterism (nakshatra) Krittika (which in Sanskrit is translated as "the cutters.")
- The Pleiades are called the star of fire, and their ruling deity is the Vedic god Agni, the god of the sacred fire.
They were called the Seven Sisters, and thought to be their original homeland.
ReplyDeleteAztec - called the Pleiades 'Tianquiztli - marketplace or gathering place
Paraguay - The Abipones tribe worshipped them as their ancestors.
Inca - called the Pleiades 'Seed Scatterer' or 'Sower'
New Zealand: Heliacal risings very often mark important calendar points for ancient peoples. The heliacal rising of the Pleiades (around June) also begins the new year for the Maori of New Zealand, who call the Pleiades Matariki. There is an analogous holiday in Hawaii known as Makalii.
Indigenous Australians: Depending on the tribe or clan, some Indigenous Australian peoples believed the Pleiades were a woman who had been nearly raped by Kidili, the man in the moon.
Another version, often painted by Gabriella Possum Nungurayyi as this is her dreaming (or creation story), daughter of the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri from the Central desert art movement of Papunya, depicts the story of seven Napaltjarri sisters being chased by a man named Jilbi Tjakamarra. He would practice love magic to seduce the sisters but they had no intention of being with him and ran away. They sat down at Uluru to search for honey ants but when they saw Jilbi, they went to Kurlunyalimpa and with the spirits of Uluru, transformed into stars. Jilbi transforms himself into what is commonly known as the Morning Star in Orion's belt, thus continuing to chase the seven sisters across the sky.
Pitjantjatjara Tribe - the Pleiades are linked to Kungkarungkara - the ancestral women.
Australian Aboriginals - Adnyamathanha tribe - Makara: the Pleiades are the wives of stars in the Orion constellation