According to Rigoglioso, the Pleiades, either
the nymphs or the stars, were seen as the origin of the entire human
population of earth, an idea not out of line with the biblical concept of
the Garden of Eden.
The later name Delos thus
connoted the coming into being, or manifestation into form, of the "light of
the star" (Asteria) itself .... I return to this idea in Chapter 6
when I discuss the belief held by some Greeks that the gods originated from
the Milky Way. I argue there that an esoteric strain in early Greek religion
may have even held that the divine children born of virgins hailed from the
constellation known as the Pleiades, in particular.
The parthenogenic nature of this
number [seven]
corresponds perfectly with the nature of the seven Pleiades themselves as
both virgins and mothers in Greek myth ....
[The]
Hindu characterization of the
Pleiades as "mothers of the world" is in complete alignment with Greek myths
naming the Pleiades ancestral mothers who created entire lineages.
