Chronological timeline of texts tagged with The Pleiades
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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.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to Tag5th century BCE (final composition)
Genesis 7:11
Hebrew Bible
10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
6th century BCE
Amos 5:8
Hebrew Bible
6 Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family; the fire will consume, and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. 7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness; they throw what is fair and right to the ground. 8 But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name! 9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places. 10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate; they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
5th century BCE
Job 9:9
Hebrew Bible
7 he who commands the sun, and it does not shine and seals up the stars, 8 he alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky; 10 he does great and unsearchable things, and wonderful things without number. 11 If he passes by me, I cannot see him; if he goes by, I cannot perceive him.
5th century BCE
Job 38:31
Hebrew Bible
29 From whose womb does the ice emerge, and the frost from the sky, who gives birth to it, 30 when the waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen solid? 31 Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades or release the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons or guide the Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth?
5th century BCE
Job 38:32
Hebrew Bible
31 Can you tie the bands of the Pleiades or release the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead out the constellations in their seasons or guide the Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens, or can you set up their rule over the earth?
1st century BCE
LXX Job 9:9
Septuagint
8 Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground. 9 Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south. 10 Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
1st century BCE
LXX Job 38:31
Septuagint
31 And do you understand the band of Pleias, and have you opened the barrier of Orion? 32 Or will you reveal Mazuroth in his season, and the evening star with his rays? Will you guide them? 33 And do you know the changes of heaven, or the events which take place together under heaven?
1st century BCE
LXX Amos 5:8
Septuagint
6 Seek the Lord, and you shall live; so that the house of Joseph does not blaze like fire and devour him, and there shall be none to quench it for the house of Israel. 7 It is the Lord that executes judgment in the height above, and he has established justice on the earth: 8 who makes all things, and changes them, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and darkens the day into night: who calls for the water of the sea, and pours it out on the face of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name: 9 who dispenses ruin to strength, and brings distress upon the fortress. 10 They hated him that reproved in the gates, and abhorred holy speech.
300 BCE – 100 CE
1 Enoch 18:13
Pseudepigrapha
12 And beyond that abyss I saw a place which had no dome of heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it; there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. 13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired about them, 14 The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth; this has become a prison for the stars and the army of heaven. 15 And the stars which roll over the fire are those which have transgressed the command of the Lord at the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. 16 And He was angry with them, and bound them until the time when their guilt should be consummated, even for ten thousand years.'
940 BCE
Homer, Iliad 18.485
Classical
480 threefold and glittering, and from it made fast a silver baldric. Five were the layers of the shield itself; and on it he wrought many intricate designs with cunning skill. On it he wrought the earth, on it the heavens, on it the sea, and the unwearied sun, and the moon at the full, 485 and on it all the constellations with which heaven is crowned—the Pleiades, and the Hyades and the mighty Orion, and the Bear, that men also call the Wain, that circles ever in her place, and watches Orion, and alone has no part in the baths of Ocean.
c. 700 BCE
Hesiod, Works and Days 609
Classical
[609] But when Orion and Sirius are come into mid-heaven, and rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus [in September], then cut off all the grape-clusters, Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten days and ten nights: then cover them over for five, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus. But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set [the end of October], then remember to plough in season: and so the completed year [constellation cycle] will fitly pass beneath the earth.
92–96 CE
Revelation 1:16
New Testament
12 I turned to see whose voice was speaking to me, and when I did so, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was dressed in a robe extending down to his feet, and he wore a wide golden belt around his chest. 14 His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun shining at full strength.
450–550 CE
Berakhot 58b
Rabbinic
On the subject of stars, the Gemara notes that Shmuel raised a contradiction between the implications of two verses with regard to constellations. On the one hand it is written: “Who makes Ursa Major, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south” (Job 9:9); Orion precedes Pleiades. And on the other hand it is written: “He Who makes Pleiades and Orion” (Amos 5:8); Pleiades precedes Orion. So how is this reconciled? The Gemara replies: Were it not for Orion’s heat, the universe could not exist because of the cold of Pleiades; and conversely, were it not for the cold of Pleiades, the universe could not exist because of the heat of Orion.
450–550 CE
Berakhot 59a
Rabbinic
as if it was appended onto it. The Gemara explains: And the fact that Ursa Major follows Pleiades, it is as if Ursa Major is saying to Pleiades: Give me back my children, my two stars. As it is related: When the Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to bring a flood into the world, He took two stars from Pleiades and brought the flood upon the world. And afterward, when He wished to fill the void, He took two stars from Ursa Major and filled the void with them. Consequently, the constellation of Ursa Major attempts to persuade Pleiades, seeking to get its stars back. The Gemara asks: And return it, why did the Holy One, Blessed be He, not restore the original two stars to Pleiades? The Gemara answers: A pit cannot be filled by its own earth; when a pit is excavated, the earth that was excavated from it is insufficient to refill it. Alternatively, one could say that a prosecutor cannot become an advocate; since these stars caused the flood it is not appropriate that they facilitate the end of the flood. The Gemara argues: Then God should have created two other new stars for Pleiades. The Gemara responds: “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Rav Naḥman said: In the future, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will restore those same stars to Ursa Major, as it is stated: “Or can you guide [tanḥem] Ursa Major with her sons?” (Job 38:32), which is interpreted homiletically in the sense of consolation [tanḥumim] apparently due to the restoration of those stars.
450–550 CE
Rosh Hashanah 11b
Rabbinic
And Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua follow their lines of reasoning, as they disagreed about this same issue in another context as well. As it is taught in a baraita: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day were all the fountains of the great deep broken open, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis 7:11). Rabbi Yehoshua says: That day was the seventeenth of Iyyar, the second month of the year counting from Nisan, which is the day that the constellation of Kima sets during the day and the season that the springs diminish with the increased heat. But because the people of the generation of the flood changed their actions for the worse, the Holy One, Blessed be He, changed for them the acts of Creation, and instead of Kima setting, He caused the constellation of Kima to rise during the day and He removed two stars from Kima, and in this way He brought a flood to the world.