Within the depth-psychology corpus, the Pleiades function primarily as a mythological-astronomical marker whose appearances traverse several overlapping registers: agricultural temporality, celestial genealogy, and the symbolic language of stellar divinity. Hesiod furnishes the foundational material, deploying the Pleiades as the canonical signal for the rhythms of ploughing, harvesting, and sowing — a usage Harrison and Vernant each recognise as encoding an archaic participatory cosmology in which the stars do not merely indicate but actively constitute seasonal reality. Kerényi draws the constellation into his mythological hermeneutic by situating Maia — mother of Hermes — within the Pleiad sisterhood, thereby connecting the stellar group to the deeper mythology of Titan descent, nocturnal divinity, and the generative night sky. In the index entry of Jung’s Aion, the Pleiades appear alongside pneuma, the pole, and prima materia, hinting at their latent place within a symbolic astronomy whose full elaboration the corpus does not provide. Kerényi’s Dionysos similarly notes the Pleiades in passing as a measurable astronomical reference point co-located with mythological figures such as Orion. The tension across the corpus lies between reading the Pleiades as a practical agricultural calendar device and reading them as mythopoeic personifications — daughters of Atlas, retired maiden goddesses — whose star-form images a deeper theology of cosmos, fate, and divine lineage.
Maia, on the other hand, was connected with the night sky in her character as one of the Pleiades. All these stars were retired maiden goddesses. They were thought to be daughters of Atlas
Kerényi establishes the Pleiades as a sisterhood of ‘retired maiden goddesses,’ daughters of Atlas, situating Maia’s nocturnal and celestial character within the theological identity of the group.
, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951thesis
When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set. For forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round
Hesiod’s canonical passage treats the Pleiades as the primary celestial clock governing the agricultural year, their rising and setting structuring the entire cycle of ploughing, harvesting, and seasonal labour.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700thesis
When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set. For forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first the sickle is sharpened.
The contest passage records Hesiod reciting the Pleiades lines as the finest passage from his own poems, confirming their canonical status as the emblem of his agricultural cosmological vision.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700thesis
when the House-carrier, fleeing the Pleiades, climbs up the plants from the earth, is the season for harvesting
The introductory commentary frames Hesiod’s reference to the Pleiades as exemplary of his ‘allusive’ seasonal imagery, in which natural creatures respond to and enact the stellar calendar.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700supporting
The snail ‘fleeing from the Pleiades’—a strange conjunction of earth and heaven. We are in a world truly magical where anything can ‘participate with’ and, in a sense, be the cause of anything else.
Harrison seizes on the snail’s relation to the Pleiades as evidence of a participatory magical cosmology in which celestial and terrestrial phenomena are causally intertwined, not merely analogically linked.
, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912supporting
the scholiast on the Phaenomena of Aratos, 264 ff., who says the Pleiades rise with the sun at dawn when he is in Taurus, which with the Romans is in April
Harrison cites scholarly annotation on Aratos to fix the astronomical calendar position of the Pleiades within the zodiacal system, connecting them to Taurus and the spring ritual season.
, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912supporting
Pleiades, 136 pleroma, 41n, 46, 66n, 219n
The index entry of Aion places the Pleiades in close proximity to cosmological and alchemical concepts such as pleroma and the pole, indicating their role within Jung’s symbolic astronomy, though without extended elaboration.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951supporting
Plaumann, Pleiades, G., 295 84, 21577
The index of Kerényi’s Dionysos notes the Pleiades alongside Orion and other constellation references, situating the star cluster within a broader mythological astronomy relevant to Dionysiac symbolism.
, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, 1976supporting
forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first the sickle is sharpened. This is the law of the plains
This parallel passage reinforces the Pleiades’ function as temporal law-givers for agricultural communities, their forty-day concealment marking a structuring absence in the seasonal calendar.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700supporting
Pleiades, 56.
Vernant’s index reference to the Pleiades at page 56 marks their appearance in his analysis of Hesiodic myth and thought, though without extended commentary in the retrieved passage.
, Myth and Thought Among the Greeks, 1983aside
Alcyone (one of the Pleiades), 67, 189
The index identifies Alcyone as one of the individual Pleiades, connecting the constellation to the genealogical catalogue of the Hesiodic corpus.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside
Asterope, one of the Pleiades, 67
An index entry identifying Asterope as a Pleiad daughter of Atlas, contributing to the genealogical enumeration of the stellar sisterhood in the Hesiodic tradition.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside
Merope, (i) one of the Pleiades, 67 (ii) dau. of Oenopion 71
The index distinguishes the Pleiad Merope from a mortal namesake, illustrating the mythological doubling that characterises the Pleiades as both stellar divinities and ancestral human figures.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside
Atlas, f. of the Pleiades, 67; s. of Iapetus, 115; upholds Heaven, 117, 133 n., 149, 441
Atlas is identified as the Titan father of the Pleiades and upholder of heaven, embedding the constellation within the Titan genealogy central to Hesiodic cosmogony.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside
Peleiad.s (= Pleiades), 67
An index note equating ‘Peleiads’ with ‘Pleiades’ records an alternate name for the constellation found in the Hesiodic tradition.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700aside