Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Merope.
The gallery
Lost Pleiad
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1884
Bouguereau’s Academic nude is the modern image of the ‘lost Pleiad’ — traditionally Merope, the sister who alone married a mortal (Sisyphus) and whose star shines dimmest. Salon pathos keeps the Atlas daughter distinct from the Messenian queen of Voltaire’s tragedy.
The Pleiades
Elihu Vedder, 1885
Vedder’s Metropolitan Museum canvas gathers all seven sisters — Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope — with one star dulled at the edge. Symbolist star-lore paints Merope inside the cluster that still bears the family’s name.