The Alexandrian Pleiad is the name given to a group of seven Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s and tragedians in the 3rd century BC (Alexandria was at that time the literary center of the Mediterranean) working in the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Ptolemy II Philadelphus

Ptolemy II Philadelphus was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BCE to 246 BCE. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice, and was educated by Philitas of Cos...

. The name derives from the seven stars of the Pleiades

Pleiades (star cluster)

In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters , is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...

 star cluster

Star cluster

Star clusters or star clouds are groups of stars. Two types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of hundreds of thousands of very old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters, more loosely clustered groups of stars, generally contain less than...

.

There are several conflicting lists of the greatest poets of the Alexandrian age (traditionally ascribed to Aristophanes of Byzantium

Aristophanes of Byzantium

Aristophanes of Byzantium was a Greek scholar, critic and grammarian, particularly renowned for his work in Homeric scholarship, but also for work on other classical authors such as Pindar and Hesiod. Born in Byzantium about 257 BC, he soon moved to Alexandria and studied under Zenodotus,...

 and Aristarchus of Samothrace

Aristarchus of Samothrace

Aristarchus of Samothrace was a grammarian noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry. He was the librarian of the library of Alexandria and seems to have succeeded his teacher Aristophanes of Byzantium in that role.He established the most historically important critical...

), which include the "Alexandrian Pleiad", some with tragic poets, other which include lyric or epic poets. The following members are usually always included in the "Alexandrian Pleiad":

• Homerus the younger
  Homerus of Byzantium
  Homerus from Byzantium was an ancient Greek grammarian and tragic poet. He was also called ho Neoteros , to distinguish him from the older Homerus ....
  
  , son of Andromachus, from Byzantium, associated with "Tragic pleiad"
• Philiscus of Corcyra
  Philiscus of Corcyra
  Philiscus of Corcyra, or Philicus was a distinguished tragic poet, and one of the seven who formed the Tragic Pleiad, was also a priest of Dionysus, and in that character he was present at the coronation procession of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 284 BC...
  
  
• Lycophron
  Lycophron
  Lycophron was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem Alexandra is attributed .-Life and miscellaneous works:...
  
  
• Alexander Aetolus
  Alexander Aetolus
  For other uses, see Alexander and Alexander Alexander Aetolus was a Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry...
  
  , tragic poet
• Sositheus
  Sositheus
  Sositheus , Greek tragic poet, of Alexandria Troas, a member of the Alexandrian "pleiad".He must have resided at some time in Athens, since Diogenes Laërtius tells us that he attacked the Stoic Cleanthes on the stage, and was hissed off by the audience...
  
   of Alexandria, dramatist
• Aeantides, a poet traditionally associated with the "Tragic pleiad"

The other members are variously:

• Theocritus
  Theocritus
  Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...
  
  , who wrote the bucolic poems
• Aratus
  Aratus
  Aratus was a Greek didactic poet. He is best known today for being quoted in the New Testament. His major extant work is his hexameter poem Phaenomena , the first half of which is a verse setting of a lost work of the same name by Eudoxus of Cnidus. It describes the constellations and other...
  
  , who wrote the Phaenomena and other poems
• Nicander
  Nicander
  Nicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, , near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum.He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete...
  
  
• Apollonius
  Apollonius of Rhodes
  Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...
  
  , who wrote the Argonautica
• Sosiphanes of Syracuse, tragic poet

Later uses

The name "Pléiade" was adopted in 1323 by a group of fourteen poets (seven men and seven women) in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 and is used as well to refer to the group of poets around Pierre de Ronsard

Pierre de Ronsard

Pierre de Ronsard was a French poet and "prince of poets" .-Early life:...

 and Joachim du Bellay

Joachim du Bellay

Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the Château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, Lord of Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his parents...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the 16th century (see "La Pléiade

La Pléiade

The Pléiade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad of seven Alexandrian poets and...

"). In modern times, "pleiad" is also used as a collective noun for a small group of brilliant or eminent persons.

Sources

• The Oxford Classical Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1949.