Hyades Look up Hyades at Dictionary.com
star cluster in constellation Taurus (generally pictured as forming the head of the bull), late 14c., from Greek Hyades, popularly explained by the ancients as "rain-bringers" (from hyein "to rain"), because wet weather supposedly began coincidentally with their heliacal rising; but probably rather from hys "swine" (the popular Latin word for the star-group was Suculae "piglets, little pigs"), from PIE *su- "pig" (see sow (n.)). Grimm ("Teutonic Mythology") lists the Anglo-Saxon glosses of Hyades as Raedgastran, Raedgasnan, Redgaesrum.