The Pleiades
Elihu Vedder American
According to Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph Pleione. Vedder used the Pleiades as his subject for the first illustration in the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". The seven female figures represent the horoscope of the astronomer-poet, Omar Khayyam. The two influences of Jupiter and the Pleiades, connected by the pleasure of the vine, are symbolized by the thread that entwines them. The central figure, whose thread is broken, is "the lost Pleiad."
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