MAIA was the eldest and fairest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione. Her name marks her as the “fruitful mother”; and the seven sisters haveno individuality except as the mothers of famous families. They were all born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, and are sometimes called mountain goddesses. In a cave of Cyllene, in the darkness of night, Maia became by Zeus the mother of the god Hermes. Maia bears one of the most characteristic names of the Phrygian mother, Cybele or Ma, the goddess whose home is on mountains and in caves; and in a common class of votive reliefs Hermes-Cadmilus is represented as a youth bearing a vase standing beside the throne on which Cybele sits. Maia was also an epithet of the Bona Dea, who is a form of Cybele, in Rome. See Conze, “Hermes-Cadmilos,” in Arch. Ztg., 1880.