Seven Sisters

Orion and the Pleiades: Orion is associated with the Pleiades as he was said to have pursued the seven sisters.

The myth of the Pleiades as seven sisters transformed into stars to escape Orion originates from Greek mythology and provides a fascinating explanation for the cluster's presence in the night sky.

According to the myth, the Pleiades were seven sisters: Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope.

The Pleiades constellation figures in the Dreamings and songlines of Aboriginal Australian peoples, usually referred to as the seven sisters.

The story has been described as “one of the most defining and predominant meta-narratives chronicled in ancient mainland Australia”, which describes a male ancestral being (with names including Wati Nyiru, Yurlu and others) who pursues seven sisters across the middle of the Australian continent from west to east, where the sisters turn into stars.

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, the eagle-hawk chases the seven sisters up into the sky, where they become the star cluster and he becomes the Southern Cross.

In the Western Desert cultural bloc in central Australia, they are said to be seven sisters fleeing from the unwelcome attentions of a man represented by some of the stars in Orion, the hunter.

The people of around Lake Eyre in South Australia tell how the ancestor male is prevented from capturing one of the seven sisters by a great flood.

The Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation of Victoria tell the Karatgurk story, which tells of how a crow robbed the seven sisters of their secret of how to make fire, thus bringing the skill to the people on earth.

In another story, told by peoples of New South Wales, the seven sisters are beautiful women known as the Maya-Mayi, two of whom are kidnapped by a warrior, Warrumma, or Warunna.