By its semantic meaning, the word "pleiad" implies a certain community of people of one era and one direction of activity. The word originates in ancient Greek mythology. The Pleiades - these are the seven daughters of Atlanta and Pleione, whom Zeus ascended to heaven and turned into a constellation. Six stars from them shine with bright light, and only one shyly is hiding - because, unlike her obedient sisters, she preferred the beloved of mortals to the gods. According to the same mythology, the constellation Pleiades served as the heavenly lighthouse for ancient sailors .
It is not surprising that this space object for many centuries and millennia has become a favorite symbol for ministers of muses. The constellation of the Northern Hemisphere found a particularly vivid reflection in elegant literature. Even in ancient times, in the III century BC, the Alexandrian poetry school was born. The seven poets who belonged to her - Homer Jr., Apollonius, Nicander, Theocritus, Aramur, Lycotron and Filik - organized in a separate circle and called themselves the "Pleiades". This movement has remained in the history of ancient literature as an example of high poetry.
Millennia passed, history repeated itself. In the Renaissance, in 1540, the new Pleiades poets declared themselves in France. It was a time of French romanticism, and also a craze for antique poetry. A group of young poets led by Pierre de Ronsard unveiled a truly revolutionary program for the development of national literature. It is noteworthy that there were seven of them, too, they called their community nothing other than the Pleiades. It was an attempt to revive and give new breath to the native literature, and at the same time it was a kind of disdain for the centuries-old traditions of French poetry.
What was the basis of the Pleiades program of poets based on? It was set out in a treatise by Joachen du Belle and was a kind of manifesto not by revival, but rather by the creation of new literature. The young generation of poets was in favor of introducing into the French literature the traditions of the ancient Alexandrian verse. They explained such a desire by the fact that it was Hellenic, Alexandrian poetry that was close to perfection - both by syllable and by poetics in general. The frankly weak and controversial treatise made a subtle curtsy towards the native language: yes, French is beautiful, it has great potential, but it is not as developed as Greek or Latin, and therefore it needs to be developed. And which way of development did you recommend the Pleiades? It was nothing more than an imitation of the ancients.
The poetic community included five more - Etienne Jodelle, Jean Antoine de Baif, Remy Bello, Jean Dora, Pontus de Tiar. The Pleiades legacy, which has reached the present, is more famous for becoming the model of true French romanticism and lyricism by the poetry of Pierre de Ronsard than the failed experiences of the Renaissance Young Hellenists. Already in the 70s, in his declining years, he wrote real masterpieces, in particular, those that remained in the history of French literature, “Sonnets to Elena” - a dedication to his last hopeless love. And in them there is not a trace of imitation, nor is there an Alexandrian verse dear to his heart, but there is only a living, suffering soul of the poet.
In later periods in the history of literature, the word "Pleiades" sounded more than once in relation to poetry. This was, however, a purely definitive designation of poets of the same current or era. So, in modern literary criticism the term “poets of the Pushkin’s galaxy”, “the galaxy of poets of the silver age” is often used. But this is, as Goethe wrote, "a new century - other birds."