Alcyone

Fixed Star Alcyone, Eta Tauri, is a 2.9 magnitude greenish yellow star and the brightest in the Pleiades star cluster of the Bull, Taurus Constellation. The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, are located in the Shoulder of the Bull. The traditional name Alcyone comes the mythological daughter of Atlas, Alcyone. She is the Central One or Hen of the Pleiades sisters who was seduced by Poseidon.

The Pleiades are the daughters of Atlas. One day Orion saw them and became enamored and pursued them. Jupiter put them in the sky to save them from Orion. Though their number is seven, only six of the stars were visible to the naked eye at the time this group was named. It is said that Electra was the missing star because she left her place so that she might not behold the ruin of Troy. Fixed Star Alcyone causes love, eminence, blindness from fevers, small pox, and accidents to the face. The Pleiades are of the nature of the Moon and Mars.

Alcyone is one of the 15 Behenian Fixed Stars. Its image is a little virgin or lamp. It strengthens the eyesight, assembles spirits, raises winds and reveals secret and hidden things. Rules crystal and the stone Diodocus, the herb Diacedon, frankincense, fennel and quicksilver.