THE VERY FIRST famous female siblings could hip-check any contemporary sister celebs right off the runway. Adored since time began, these original sisters have retained genuine star power since they first arrived, something you simply can’t say that about the Spears, the Olsens or even the ever-lovely Cruz family. These are the star cluster known as the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, and as conspicuous in the night sky as they are in ancient mythology. The Pleiades have been described as far back as representations in the 16,500-year-old cave paintings at Lascaux.
Located in the constellation Taurus, the Seven Sisters are thought to have formed around 100 million years ago. Mentioned by Homer, the 8th century BC poet, as well as in the Bible’s book of Job (“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades…?” Job 38:31), they are the stuff of both myth and legend in practically every culture on earth. As such, they are mostly celebrated by names taken from Greek mythology, as the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione: Alcyone, Asterope (a double star, also sometimes called Sterope), Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta and Celaeno.
They’re ready for their close-up in the sky, as well as in an early engraving.
Here on earth references abound to those Seven Sisters. Seven excellent women’s liberal arts colleges–Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley, all founded between 1837 and 1839–were once collectively known by that name, though these days in Boston, if you ask to see the Seven Sisters, you’ll be directed you to the Museum of Fine Arts, where two John Singer Sargent paintings are together referred to that way.
Ask for the Seven Sisters in Moscow, and you’ll wind up touring the buildings Joseph Stalin ordered to compete with New York’s skyscrapers; in Germany, you’ll be referring to the regional stock markets; pretty much anywhere in Europe you’ll be using the disparaging name hung on the American-British companies that control Middle East oil.
But do not despair, since you might just as easily be thought to seek a magical place named for the Pleiades, and wind up in Tottenham, North London, on what was once perhaps a Pagan sacred site featuring a ring of elm trees. The story goes that in 1840, the trees were thought to be 500 years old, and have twice been replaced, again in a ring, the first time in 1886 by women named the Hibbert sisters and the second, in 1955, by the Basten sisters.
Beware, however, that there are five known Seven Sisters Roads in London, so be specific if that’s where you are headed.
Of course, once you start talking places in London, you’re talking music and literature. Not every place is as famous as Penny Lane or 221b Baker Street, but practically every street has a story, and Seven Sisters Road is no exception. Among the many renditions: Bristol-based hard rock band Alien Stash Tin’s song by that name and the one from Nick Hornby’s fabulous novel, High Fidelity. Every fan knows that Rob Fleming, the book’s main character, lives right there, on Seven Sisters Road.–Marion Roach Smith
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