There was a lost pleiad: ... To a casual glance, the Pleiades cluster appears as a fuzzy patch like a swarm of flies over the back of the bull ... According to mythology, Alcyone and Celaeno were both seduced by Poseidon. Maia, the eldest and most beautiful of the sisters, was seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Hermes; she later became foster-mother to Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto. Zeus also seduced two others of the Pleiades: Electra, who gave birth to Dardanus, the founder of Troy; and Taygete, who gave birth to Lacedaemon, founder of Sparta. Asterope was ravished by Ares and became mother of Oenomaus, king of Pisa, near Olympia, who features in the legend of Auriga. Hence six Pleiades became paramours of the gods. Only Merope married a mortal, Sisyphus, a notorious trickster who was subsequently condemned to roll a stone eternally up a hill ...
... Eratosthenes says that Merope was the faint Pleiad because she was the only one who married a mortal. Hyginus and Ovid also recount this story, giving her shame as the reason for her faintness, but both add another candidate: Electra, who could not bear to see the fall of Troy, which had been founded by her son Dardanus. Hyginus says that, moved by grief, she left the Pleiades altogether, but Ovid says that she merely covered her eyes with her hand ... ... Merope often is considered the Lost Pleiad, because, having married a mortal, the crafty Sisyphus, she hid her face in shame when she thought of her sisters' alliances with the gods, and realized that she had thrown herself away. She seems, however, to have recovered her equanimity, being now much brighter than some of the others. The name itself signifies 'Mortal' ... ... Electra, although for at least two or three centuries the title of a clearly visible star, has been regarded as the Lost Pleiad, from the legend that she withdrew her light in sorrow of witnessing the destruction of Ilium, which was founded by her son Dardanos ... or, as Hyginus wrote, left her place to be present at its fall, thence wandering to Mizar as Άλώπηξ, the Fox, the Arabs' Al Suhā, and our Alcor [80 Ursae Majoris]. Ovid called her Atlantis, personifying the family. The Pirt-Kopan-noot tribe of Australia have a legend of a Lost Pleiad, making this the queen of the other six, beloved by their heavenly Crow, our Canopus, and who, carried away by him, never returned to her home ...
The last of these explanations would fit with Alcyone because she was the last one to rise of the 7 sisters.
Within the framework of Bharani the place of Alcyone was in "April 5 (95 = 80 + 56 - 41). And in Roman times the corresponding date would have been day 95 + 14 = 80 + 56 - 27 = 'April 19. A new time was beginning at Alcyone, whereas her sisters belonged at the end of the previous year. ... In China, every year about the beginning of April, certain officials called Sz'hüen used of old to go about the country armed with wooden clappers. Their business was to summon the people and command them to put out every fire. This was the beginning of the season called Han-shih-tsieh, or 'eating of cold food'. For three days all household fires remained extinct as a preparation for the solemn renewal of the fire, which took place on the fifth or sixth day after the winter solstice [Sic!] ...
Evidently the Foundation Stone had to be restored to its correct position each year, perhaps because it appeared to have rolled downwards. Tuna. Rolling stone. Vanaga. Ta.: tuna, the sweetwater eel. Sa.: tuna, id. Ma.: tuna, the eel. Churchill.
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