the Greeks watch the frightened Pleiades drop into the sea. It is now a dangerous time for small crafts to venture forth.
"When the Pleiades, fleeing the mighty strength of Orion, fall into the murky sea"
make the boats secure for the sailing season is over.
The Dogstarre maketh the heat of Sommer."
—1507, Golding De Mornay.
Yet the people around the Mediterranean were not the only ones who considered the importance of these stars. Spence in "Myths of Mexico and Peru" tells with what trepidation the ancient Mexican people watched, every period of 52 years, the passage of these stars across the zenith.
"With the conclusion of each period of fifty-two years a terrible dread came upon the Mexicans that the world would come to an end. A stated period of time had expired, a period which was regarded as fixed by divine command, and it had been ordained that on the completion of one of those series of fifty-two years earthly time would cease and the universe be demolished. The Mexicans then abandoned themselves to utmost prostration and the wicked went about in terrible fear. As the first day of the fifty-third year dawned the people narrowly observed the Pleiades, for if they passed the zenith, time would proceed and the world would become respited."
Perhaps the reason for periodical recurrence of this fear lay in the old Mexican tradition that the world was once destroyed when the Pleiades culminated at midnight.
Poets in all lands have sung the praises of the Pleiad stars. Probably the most quoted are those from Tennyson's "Locksley Hall." These are so truly beautiful that one almost involuntarily repeats them whenever the huge giant Orion or this lovely star group comes into view.
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