Maia
(
Μαῖα). The daughter of Atlas and Pleioné, one
of the
Pleiades (q.v.), and mother of Hermes by
Zeus. The Romans identified her with an old Italian goddess of spring, Maia Maiestas (also
called Fauna, Bona Dea, Ops), who was held to be the wife of Vulcan, and to whom the flamen of
that god sacrificed a pregnant sow on the first of May.