Gaze upwards on a clear, dark night, and you might spot a tiny, shimmering dipper-like cluster of stars. This is the Pleiades, also famously known as the Seven Sisters. Yet, here lies an ancient riddle: while lore across the globe calls them seven, most unaided eyes can typically only discern six. This discrepancy, this sense of a missing member, has woven itself into the fabric of human storytelling for millennia, creating a poignant and widespread myth – that of the Pleiades’ lost sister.
This isn’t a modern observation. Ancient peoples, with their keen connection to the night sky, noticed this celestial irregularity too. The very name “Seven Sisters” sets an expectation, and when that expectation isn’t quite met visually, the human imagination rushes to fill the void with narrative. The resulting stories are diverse, reflecting the unique cultural landscapes from which they sprang, yet they often share a common thread of sorrow, separation, or a diminished presence.
The Grecian Veil of Sorrow
Perhaps the most widely known tales of the lost Pleiad come from Greek mythology. Here, the Pleiades are the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas, who bore the heavens on his shoulders, and the sea-nymph Pleione. Their names echo through ancient texts: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete. They were companions of Artemis, the huntress goddess.
Merope’s Mortal Choice
One of the most enduring explanations for the “lost” or faintest sister centers on Merope. Unlike her sisters, who all consorted with gods, Merope married a mortal, King Sisyphus of Corinth. Sisyphus was famed for his cunning but also for his hubris, which led to his eternal punishment of rolling a boulder uphill in Tartarus. The story goes that Merope, ashamed of her mortal entanglement or perhaps grieving her husband’s fate and her own diminished status among her divine siblings, hides her face. Her light, therefore, is the dimmest, often invisible to the naked eye. She is the blushing, hidden Pleiad, a symbol of a celestial being touched by mortal sorrow.
Electra’s Grief for Troy
Another prominent figure in the “lost sister” narrative is Electra. She was said to be an ancestress of the Trojan royal family, her son Dardanus being the founder of Troy. When Troy fell to the Achaeans after a brutal ten-year siege, Electra was overwhelmed with grief. In her sorrow, she was said to have veiled her face, turning away from the sight of her descendants’ destruction. Some versions say she abandoned her place in the star cluster altogether, her light vanishing from human sight. Her story ties the celestial to the terrestrial, linking the fate of a star to one of the most epic conflicts in mythology.
Astronomers have identified that Pleione, the star representing the mother Pleione or sometimes one of the sisters, is a known variable star. Its brightness fluctuates over a period of years. This natural variability offers a compelling scientific parallel to the ancient myths of a star that sometimes appears dimmer or “lost.”
Whispers from the Dreamtime: Australian Aboriginal Lore
Long before the Greeks looked to the skies, the First Peoples of Australia were weaving complex narratives around the Pleiades, which they often also saw as a group of young women or sisters. These stories are among the oldest continuous astronomical traditions in the world, dating back tens of thousands of years.
In many Aboriginal cultures across the continent, the Pleiades are the Makara, the Kungkarangkalpa, or similar groupings of seven young women. Frequently, their story involves being pursued by a male figure or figures, often associated with the stars of Orion’s belt and sword. The “lost sister” motif finds its place here too. Sometimes, one sister is too young or too old to keep up and is left behind. In other versions, one sister is captured by the pursuer, or she might sacrifice herself to allow the others to escape. The specific details vary greatly between different language groups, but the essence of a missing or separated member of the sisterly group is a recurring theme. These stories are not just myths; they are often deeply connected to seasonal calendars, navigation, and social laws.
Echoes Across the Americas: Native American Star Tales
The “lost sister” theme, or variations on a group of celestial beings with one set apart, also resonates in many Native American traditions. The number seven is significant in many cultures, and star clusters like the Pleiades were keen objects of observation and storytelling.
One powerful example comes from the Kiowa people of the Great Plains. Their legend explains the origin of the geological formation known as Devils Tower (Mateo Tipi or Bear Lodge). The story tells of seven young girls playing in the woods who were chased by giant bears. They scrambled onto a low rock and prayed to the Great Spirit for help. The rock began to rise, lifting them high into the sky, out of the bears’ reach. The bears clawed at the sides of the rising rock, creating the deep grooves seen on Devils Tower today. The seven girls became the stars of the Pleiades. However, some versions of the story imply that one girl either fell or was less bright, or that the group originally contained more and only seven made it to the sky, subtly echoing the idea of a lost or diminished presence.
Other tribes have stories where the Pleiades are young boys, or a family. The commonality is the grouping and, often, a narrative explaining why they are in the sky and why their number or appearance might be noteworthy.
Global Glimmers: Other Cultural Interpretations
The fascination with this particular star cluster and its apparent numerical inconsistency isn’t confined to these regions. In Japan, the Pleiades are known as Subaru, meaning “to gather” or “unite.” While six stars are typically most visible and are reflected in the logo of the car manufacturer of the same name, ancient Japanese texts and poetry sometimes refer to “seven stars.” This hints at a similar awareness of the elusive seventh member.
In Hindu mythology, the Pleiades are known as the Krittikas. They were originally six nymphs who became the nurses for the war god Kartikeya. They are associated with fire and purification. While the number is often fixed at six in primary myths, connections to the Saptarishis (Seven Sages) and their wives sometimes bring in variations that could subtly play on a theme of a shifting or partly obscured group.
Viking lore also recognized the Pleiades, sometimes calling them Freyja’s hens, though specific “lost sister” narratives are less prominent than in other cultures, the idea of a celestial grouping that doesn’t quite match a perfect count often spurred curiosity.
Astronomical Realities and Mythic Imagination
So, what could be the astronomical basis for this pervasive myth? Several scientific explanations align beautifully with the storytelling.
Variable Stars: As mentioned earlier, Pleione (28 Tauri) is a Gamma Cassiopeiae variable star. Its brightness can change noticeably over cycles of years. It’s quite plausible that at various times in human history, Pleione was brighter and more easily counted as the seventh prominent star, while at other times it dimmed, giving rise to stories of its fading or disappearance.
Line of Sight and Resolution: The Pleiades cluster contains hundreds of stars, but only a handful are bright enough to be seen without aid. The two stars representing Atlas (the father) and Pleione (the mother) are very close together in our line of sight. Keen-eyed observers might resolve them as two, while most would see them as one, leading to a count of six “sisters” plus this combined parental point, or if Pleione is too dim, just six in total. The ability to distinguish these close stars varies with atmospheric conditions and individual eyesight.
A Fading Star?: It’s also conceivable, though harder to prove, that one of the stars in the cluster was significantly brighter thousands of years ago and has genuinely, permanently faded over astronomical timescales. This would provide a very literal “lost” star.
The Enduring Power of a Celestial Question Mark
The myth of the Pleiades’ lost sister is more than just an ancient attempt to explain an astronomical observation. It speaks to deeper human experiences. Themes of loss, grief, shame, memory, and the fragility of bonds are woven into these celestial tales. The missing sister makes the group incomplete, creating a sense of longing or mystery that resonates across cultures and generations.
The Pleiades, hovering like a question mark in the night sky, have served as a canvas for human emotion. The stories remind us that our ancestors were not so different from us; they looked up at the same stars, felt the same pangs of sorrow for what was lost, and sought to make sense of their world through the power of narrative. The lost sister, whether Merope hiding in shame, Electra veiling her grief, or an Aboriginal maiden separated from her kin, continues to twinkle faintly in our collective imagination, a testament to the enduring bond between the heavens and the human heart.
