The Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, also called Messier 45, is a famous collection of stars which has been mentioned in one way or another for thousands of years. As long ago as 2357 B.C, there is reference to it in ancient chineese texts. In ancient Aztec and Mayan tradition, its midnight culmination directly overhead every 52 years was an event of great concern since it was believed that the world would come to an end on one such occasion.
They go by a great many different names; The Seven Sisters, The Children of Atlas, or the Daughters of Pleone according to ancient greek mythology. It is mentioned in the Book of Job, in the works of Middle-Eastern poets such as Hafiz of Persia ca 14th century. The Pleiades are associated with water, sailing and certain festivals such as All Hallows Eve and various memorials to the dead. Along with the Mayans, other civilizations celebrate its midnight culmination as well. American Indian legend has it that a great bear chased 7 indian maidens into the sky near the famous Devil's Tower monument in Wyoming. The monument still bears the scars of the claw marks of the bear as it tried to get the maidens!
A popular name for them in German folklore is the Sailor's Stars. Farmer's in Germany refer to this cluster as the Clock Henne and her Chickens. Other lands associate it with a flock of pigeons, camels, goats or doves. They are the 'Hoening Stars' in South Africa, beloved spirits of their ancestors by the Abipones of Paraguay. In the Middle Ages, they had a more sinister influence as the 'Witch's Sabbath' or the 'Black Sabbat' since it culminates overhead on November 1 at the time of the Druid celebration.
A number of greek temples are apparently oriented to the rising or setting of this cluster, and in Egypt they were revered as the Stars of Hathor; one of the many forms of Isis.
One of the oldest traditions is that of the Lost Pleiad. The Greeks identify her as Electra, or Merope. According to Aratus, "Their number seven, though the myths oft say, and poets feign, that one has passed away". It is a tradition also found in ancient Japanese lore, the writings of Austrailian aborigines, natives of the Gold Coast of Africa, and head-hunters of Borneo. Pleione is the most likely suspect since it is a variable star.
The Pleiades is a cluster of 10 bright stars of which 9 have been seen and named by careful observers for centuries. Their names are: Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Pleione, Calaeno and Asterope. The cluster actually contains over 3000 stars of all masses and luminosities, at a distance of 126 parsecs or 410 light years. It is a young cluster probably no more than 20 million years old, which still has some of the vestiges of its infant dust cloud visible as the faint haze that surrounds this cluster of stars. The proper motion if this cluster is 5 arcseconds per century so that in 30,000 years it will have drifted about the diameter of the Full Moon.
For more information about this cluster, have a look at Robert Bernham's Celestial Handbook published by Dover in 1978.