 In Book 18 of the "Iliad" the stars of the Hyades appear along with the Pleiades, Ursa Major, and Orion on the shield that the god Hephaistos made for Achilles.In England the cluster was known as the "April Rainers" from an association with April showers, as recorded in the folk song "Green Grow the Rushes, O".The cluster was probably first catalogued by Giovanni Battista Hodierna in 1654, and it subsequently appeared in many star atlases of the 17th and 18th centuries.