Alcyone
Encyclopedia
.jpg)
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus
Aeolus
Aeolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which...
, either by Enarete
Enarete
In Greek mythology, Enarete , daughter of Deimachus, was the wife of Aeolus and ancestress of the Aeolians. Her children were Canace, Sisyphus, Deioneus, Salmoneus, Macar, Cretheus, Athamas, Perieres, Calyce, Peisidice, Perimede and in some myths, Alcyone. She may have been the mother of Arne, if...
or Aegiale
Aegiale (daughter of Helios)
In Greek mythology, Aegiale was the daughter of Helios and Clymene. She is a member of the Heliades. It was either by her or by Enarete that Aeolus fathered Alcyone....
. She married Ceyx, son of Eosphorus, the Morning Star.
They were very happy together in Trachis
Trachis
Trachis was a region in ancient Greece. Situated south of the river Spercheios, it was populated by the Malians.Its main town was also called Trachis until 426 BC, when it became Heraclea Trachinia. It is located to the west of Thermopylae. Trachis is located just west of the western-most tip of...
, and according to Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, often sacrilegiously
Sacrilege
Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense, any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege. It can come in the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things...
called each other "Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
" and "Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
". This angered Zeus, so while Ceyx was at sea (going to consult an oracle according to Ovid's account), the god threw a thunderbolt at his ship. Soon after, Morpheus (God of Dreams) disguised as Ceyx appeared to Alcyone as an apparition to tell her of his fate, and she threw herself into the sea in her grief. Out of compassion, the gods changed them both into halcyon bird
Halcyon (genus)
Halcyon is a genus of the tree kingfishers, near passerine birds in the family Halcyonidae.The following is the list of species:* Ruddy Kingfisher, Halcyon coromanda* Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Halcyon badia...
s, named after her.
Ovid and Hyginus both also recount the metamorphosis of the pair in and after Ceyx's loss in a terrible storm, though they both omit Ceyx and Alcyone calling each other Zeus and Hera (and Zeus's resulting anger) as a reason for it. Ovid also adds the detail of her seeing his body washed up onshore before her attempted suicide.
Ovid and Hyginus both also make the metamorphosis the origin of the etymology for "halcyon days
Halcyon Days
Halcyon Days is a collaborative album by the ambient musicians Steve Roach, Stephen Kent and Kenneth Newby. This album was recorded in the period from December 17 to 28, 1995...
," the seven days in winter when storms never occur. They state that these were originally the seven days each year (either side of the shortest day of the year
Winter solstice
Winter solstice may refer to:* Winter solstice, astronomical event* Winter Solstice , former band* Winter Solstice: North , seasonal songs* Winter Solstice , 2005 American film...
) during which Alcyone (as a kingfisher
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australia...
) laid her eggs and made her nest on the beach and during which her father Aeolus
Aeolus
Aeolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which...
, god of the winds, restrained the winds and calmed the waves so she could do so in safety. The phrase has since become a term used to describe a peaceful time generally. Its proper meaning, however, is that of a lucky break, or a bright interval set in the midst of adversity; just as the days of calm and mild weather are set in the height of winter for the sake of the kingfishers' egglaying.
The myth is also briefly referred to by Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, again without reference to Zeus's anger.
Legacy
- Various kinds of kingfisherKingfisherKingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australia...
s are named after the couple, in reference to the metamorphosis myth:- The genusGenusIn biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
CeyxCeyx (kingfisher)Ceyx is an Old World genus of river kingfishers.* Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Ceyx erithacus* Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher, Ceyx fallax* Variable Dwarf Kingfisher, Ceyx lepidus* Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher, Ceyx madagascariensis...
(within the River kingfishersRiver kingfishersThe river kingfishers or Alcedinidae, are one of the three families of bird in the kingfisher group. The Alcedinidae once included all kingfishers, before the widespread recognition of Halcyonidae and Cerylidae...
familyFamily (biology)In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
) is named after him - The kingfisher family Halcyonidae (Tree KingfisherTree kingfisherThe tree kingfishers or wood kingfishers, family Halcyonidae, are the most numerous of the three families of birds in the kingfisher group, with between 56 and 61 species in around 12 genera, including several species of kookaburras. The family appears to have arisen in Indochina and the Maritime...
s) is named after his wife, as is the genus HalcyonHalcyon (genus)Halcyon is a genus of the tree kingfishers, near passerine birds in the family Halcyonidae.The following is the list of species:* Ruddy Kingfisher, Halcyon coromanda* Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Halcyon badia...
. - The Belted KingfisherBelted KingfisherThe Belted Kingfisher is a large, conspicuous water kingfisher, the only member of that group commonly found in the northern United States and Canada. It is depicted on the 1986 series Canadian $5 note. All kingfishers were formerly placed in one family, Alcedinidae, but recent research suggests...
's Latin species name (Megaceryle alcyon) also references her name.
- The genus
- Their story features in The Book of the DuchessThe Book of the DuchessThe Book of the Duchess, also known as The Deth of Blaunche, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910. Accessed March 11, 2008. is the earliest of Chaucer’s major poems, preceded only by his short poem, "An ABC," and possibly by his translation of The Romaunt of the Rose...
. - Their story is the basis for the opera AlcyoneAlcyone (opera)Alcyone is an opera by the French composer Marin Marais. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. The libretto, by Antoine Houdar de la Motte, is based on the Greek myth of Ceyx and Alcyone as recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The opera was first performed at...
by the French composer Marin MaraisMarin MaraisMarin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles... - A collection of Canada's celebrated nature poet, Archibald LampmanArchibald LampmanArchibald Lampman, was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in...
, Alcyone, his final set of poetry published posthumously in 1899, highlights both Lampman's apocalyptic and utopian visions of the future. - TS Eliot draws from this myth in The Dry SalvagesThe Dry Salvages"The Dry Salvages" is the third poem of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and marks the beginning of when the series was consciously being formed as a set of four poems. It was written and published in 1941 during the air-raids on Great Britain, an event that threatened him while giving lectures in the...
: "And the ragged rock in the restless waters,/Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it;/On a halcyon day it is merely a monument,/In navigable weather it is always a seamark/To lay a course by: but in the sombre season/Or the sudden fury, is what it always was."