Alcyone and Ceyx

Alkyóne comes from (), which refers to a sea-bird with a mournful song or to a kingfisher bird in particular. The meaning(s) of the words is uncertain because is considered to be of pre-Greek, non-Indo-European origin. However, folk etymology related them to the (, "brine, sea, salt") and (, "I conceive"). originally is written with a smooth breathing mark, but this false etymology beginning with a rough breathing mark (transliterated as the letter H) led to the common misspellings () and (), and thus the name of one of the kingfisher bird genera in English, Halcyon. It is also speculated that Alkyóne is derived from (, "prowess, battle, guard") and (, from , , "to help, to please"). as referring to a sea-bird appears to be related to (), which is a ravenous sea-bird (, ). These suggest that may have been turned into either a sea mew or a tern. == Mythology ==

, Halcyone, 1915. Alcyone was a Thessalian princess, the daughter of King Aeolus of Aeolia, either by Enarete or Aegiale. The couple were very happy together in Trachis. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, this couple often sacrilegiously called each other "Zeus" and "Hera". This angered Zeus, so while Ceyx was at sea (in order to consult an oracle, according to Ovid), he killed Ceyx with a thunderbolt. Soon after, Morpheus, the god of dreams, disguised as Ceyx, appeared to Alcyone to tell her of her husband's fate. In her grief she threw herself into the sea. Out of compassion, the gods changed them both into "halcyon birds" (common kingfishers), named after her. Apollodorus says that Ceyx was turned into a gannet, and not a kingfisher. 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. On the contrary, it is mentioned that while still unaware of Ceyx's death in the shipwreck, Alcyone continued to pray at the altar of Hera for his safe return. Ovid also adds the detail of her seeing his body washed ashore before her attempted suicide. Pseudo-Probus, a scholiast on Virgil's Georgics, notes that Ovid followed Nicander's version of the tale, instead of Theodorus's starring another Alcyone. Virgil in the Georgics also alludes to the myth—again without reference to Zeus's anger. It is possible that the earlier myth was a simpler version of the one by Nicander, where a woman named Alcyone mourned her unnamed husband; Ceyx was probably added later due to him being an important figure in mythology and poetry, and also having a wife whose name was Alcyone (as evidenced from the Hesiodic poem Wedding of Ceyx, which was probably about a different Ceyx). == Halcyon days ==

Ovid and Hyginus both also make the metamorphosis the origin of the term "halcyon days", the seven days in winter when storms never occur. They state that these were originally the fourteen days each year (seven days on either side of the shortest day of the year) during which Alcyone (as a kingfisher) made her nest on the beach and laid her eggs while her father Aeolus, the god of the winds, helped her do so safely by restraining the winds and thus calming the waves. In Latin it occurs as in Pliny the Elder, (-nĭī) in Columella and Varro, in Hyginus, and in Plautus and Frontinus. == Legacy ==

{{unordered list == Gallery ==

File:Virgil Solis - Alcyone Juno.jpg|Alcyone praying Juno, engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 573–582 File:Virgil Solis - Ceyx Tempest.jpg|Ceyx in the tempest, engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 410–572 File:Virgil Solis - Ceyx-Morpheus Alcyone.jpg|Ceyx/Morpheus appears to Alcyone, engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 650–749. File:Johann Wilhelm Baur - Morpheus in the house of Ceyx, before Alcyone.jpg|Ceyx/Morpheus appears to Alcyone, engraving (or etching more likely) by Bauer for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI, 633–676. File:Ceyx prenant conge d'alcyone.jpg|''Ceyx prenant congé d'Alcyone'' (15th century) File:Alcyone ceyx.jpg|Alcyone and Ceyx marble bas relief, originally at Parlington Hall, Aberford, removed to Lotherton Hall sometime after 1905. == See also ==

• Hesiod, Catalogue of Women from Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. Online version at theoi.com • Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project. • Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. • Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. • Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. • Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library. • Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics of Vergil. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. • == External links ==