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728 SKY AND STAKS.
Between the shoulders of the Bull is a space thickly sown with
stars, but in which seven (really six) larger ones are recognis
able ; hence it is called sieben-gestirn, OHG. thaz sibunstirri,
0. v. 17, 29. Diut. i. 520 a . Gl. Jim. 188 (where it is confounded
with the Hyades not far off, in the Bull s head)
. Beside this
purely arithmetical denomination, there are others more living :
Gr. IT/VetaSe?, Ion. IlA^taSe?, seven daughters of Atlas and
Pleione, whom Zeus raised to the sky, II. 18, 486. Od. 5, 272,
and who, like the Norse Thiassi and Orvandill, are of giant kin ;
but some explain these Pleiads from TreXeta? wild dove, which
Lat. Vergiliae, of which Festus gives a lame
is usually TreXeta. 1
A German poet writes virilie, Amgb. 42 b .
explanation.
The picture of the Pleiades that finds most favour among the
people in Germany and almost all over Europe is that of a hen
and seven chickens, which at once reminds us of the Greek seven
doves. 2 Mod. Gr. irovKia (Fauriel 2, 277). Our klucke, Jcluclcerin,
Iduckh.enne, brut-henne mit den hunlem ; Dan. aft en-hone t even
ing-hen (-Iwnne, Dansk. digtek. middelald. 1,102); Engl. hen with
her chickens; Fr. la poussiniere, in Lorraine poucherosse, covrosse
(couveuse, brood-hen, qui conduit des poussins) 3
; Gris. cluotschas
or cluschas the cluck-hens; Ital. gallinelle ; Boh. slepice
s kurdtky
hen with chickens ; Hung, fiastik, fiastyuk from tik, tyuk gallina,
and fiazom pario. The sign of the cluck-hen seems to me inter-
grown with our antiquity. Nursery tales bring in a peculiar
feature, viz. that three nuts or eggs having been given as a pre
sent, out of them come a golden dress, a silver dress, and a cluckie
with seven (or twelve) chickies, the three gifts representing sun,
moon and seven-stars. Kinderm. no. 88 (2, 13). So in the
Introd. to the Pentamerone, out of the miraculous nut comes a
voccola co dudece polecine. Now the Hungarian tale in Gaal p. 381
has golden hen and six chickens/ meaning the Pleiades ; and the
maiden, seeking her lost lover, has to obtain access to him by the
valuables contained in three nuts ; these were three dresses, on
which severally were worked the sun, the moon, and the seven-
stars (conf. Wigal. 812), being gifts of Sun, Moon, and Seven-
1 The Snppl. adds : the Pleiades, like doves, carry ambrosia to Zeus, but one
flhcays gets lost in passing the Planctae rocks, and Zeus fills up their number again,
Athen. 4, 325-6. Homer tells the story simply of doves, irAeueu, Od. 12, 61. TBANS.
2 Conf. Pentam. 4, 8 li sette palommielle, seven children transformed,
s Mem. des antiq. 4, 376. 6, 121-9.