The Pleiades

The Pleiades are a small cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus, usually counted as seven, whose rising before dawn in spring and setting in autumn was likely used to mark the seasons for farmers, sailors, and festivals in the ancient world. In Mesopotamia the cluster was very likely identified with the Sebettu, a group of seven gods or demons, and in Greek tradition with the seven daughters of Atlas. The Pleiades appear three times in the Hebrew Bible, once in Amos and twice in Job, always together with Orion, among the constellations the texts say God made and controls. Some later Jewish traditions connected the Pleiades with the flood, telling how God removed two of their stars to let the waters through. The seven stars that 1 Enoch describes as bound in punishment, and the seven stars in Revelation, may also refer to the same cluster.