The Fixed Stars

Prima Hyadum

Gamma Tauri, Hyadum I, the first of the Hyades

The first of the Hyades, the leading star of the rainy cluster. It stands at about 6° Gemini (tropical).

The lead star of the Hyades, the wet sisters of the Bull's face.

Gamma Tauri stands at the point of the V of the Hyades, the loose cluster that forms the face of the Bull and that the ancients read as bringers of rain, storms and tears. Robson, following Ptolemy, gives the Hyades the nature of Saturn and Mercury and a stormy character: tears and sudden events, violence and a restless mind, more caution than fortune. As the first of the cluster it carries this collective character rather than a separate legend.

The Hyades were read as a group; Ptolemy's Saturn-Mercury nature and their rainy, tearful reputation belong to the whole cluster.