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Hyas, in Greek mythology, was a son of the Titan Atlas by Aethra (one of the Oceanides). He was a notable archer who was killed by his intended prey. Some stories have him dying after attempting to rob a lion of its cubs. Some have him killed by a serpent, but most commonly he is said to have been gored by a wild boar. His sisters, the Hyades, mourned his death with so much vehemence and dedication that they died of grief. Zeus, in recognition of their familial love, took pity upon them and changed them into stars—the constellation Hyades—and placed them in the head of Taurus, where their annual rising and setting are accompanied by plentiful rain.
Or so the story goes. The mythological use of Hyas is simply to provide a male figure to consort with the archaic rain-nymphs, the Hyades, a chaperone reponsible for their behavior, as all the archaic sisterhoods— even the Muses—needed to be controlled under the Olympian world-picture. And also to give these weepy rain-nymphs something to be weeping about, mourning for a male being an acceptably passive female role in the patriarchal culture of the Hellenes. Hyas has no separate existence, even the alternative accounts of his demise being somewhat conventional and interchangeable— except as progenitor of the Hyantes.
- "Hyas" entry, wikipedia
posted March 23, 2004 in print. 20052001