  There are two puzzles surrounding the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. First, why
are the mythological stories surrounding them, typically involving seven young
girls being chased by a man associated with the constellation Orion, so similar
in vastly separated cultures, such as the Australian Aboriginal cultures and
Greek mythology? Second, why do most cultures call them "Seven Sisters" even
though most people with good eyesight see only six stars? Here we show that
both these puzzles may be explained by a combination of the great antiquity of
the stories combined with the proper motion of the stars, and that these
stories may predate the departure of most modern humans out of Africa around
100,000 BC.
