Alcyone (daughter of Sciron)

Alkyóne comes from alkyón ({{lang|grc|ἀλκυών}}), which refers to a sea-bird with a mournful song{{cite web |title=ἀλκυών |url=https://homeric_el_en.en-academic.com/615/%E1%BC%80%CE%BB%CE%BA%CF%85%CF%8E%CE%BD |website=Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias |access-date=29 July 2023 |language=en}} or to a kingfisher bird in particular.{{cite book |last1=Woodhouse |first1=Sidney Chawner |title=English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language |date=1910 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited |location=London |isbn=9780710023247 |page=470 |url=https://artflsrv03.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/efts/sqldbs/WOODHOUSE/woodhouse.py?pagenumber=470&pageturn=1}} The meaning(s) of the words is uncertain because alkyón is considered to be of pre-Greek, non-Indo-european origin.{{cite book |last1=Beekes |first1=Robert Stephen Paul |last2=van Beek |first2=Lucien |title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek |date=2010 |volume=1 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-17420-7 |page=71}} However, folk etymology related them to the háls ({{lang|grc|ἅλς}}, "brine, sea, salt") and kyéo ({{lang|grc|κυέω}}, "I conceive"). Alkyóne originally is written with a smooth breathing mark, but this false origin beginning with a rough breathing mark (transliterated as the letter H) led to the common misspellings halkyón ({{lang|grc|ἁλκυών}}) and Halkyóne ({{lang|grc|Ἁλκυόνη}}),{{cite web |last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |title=A Greek-English Lexicon, ἀλκυών |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=a)lkuw/n |website=Perseus Digital Library |publisher=Tufts University |access-date=29 July 2023}} and thus the name of one of the kingfisher bird genus' in English Halcyon. It is also speculated that Alkyóne is derived from alké ({{lang|grc|ἀλκή}}, "prowess, battle, guard") and onéo ({{lang|grc|ὀνέω}}, from {{lang|grc|ὀνίνεμι}}, onínemi,{{cite web |title=ὀνέω - Ancient Greek (LSJ) |url=https://lsj.gr/index.php?title=%E1%BD%80%CE%BD%CE%AD%CF%89&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop |website=Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon |access-date=29 July 2023}} "to help, to please").{{cite web |title=ALCYONE (Alkyone) - Boeotian Pleiad Nymph of Greek Mythology |url=https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheAlkyone.html |website=Theoi Project |access-date=29 July 2023}}

According to Pseudo-Probus's commentary on Virgil, Alcyone was the daughter of an Attic man named Sciron, the son of Polypemon. Her father, who wished to see his daughter wed at last, ordered her to look for a husband, and Alcyone proceeded to sleep with many men. When he found out about his daughter's promiscuity, Sciron was enraged and cast Alcyone into the sea to drown, whereupon she was transformed into a kingfisher, an aquatic bird beloved by the sea-goddess Thetis.Pseudo-Probus, On Virgil's Georgics [https://books.google.com/books?id=vifrcunwIXAC&pg=PA44 1.399]{{sfn|Pagès|Villagra|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 206]}}

Pseudo-Probus says that this version is Theodorus's, from a lost Metamorphoses work of his; he adds that Ovid in his own Metamorphoses is going by Nicander's version (which has also been lost).{{sfn|Pagès|Villagra|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 206]}}{{sfn|Gildenhard|2017|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=wiMxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT164 164]}} In the Metamorphoses, Ovid writes that Alcyone and Ceyx were a beloved couple. Ceyx died at sea during a terrible seastorm, and when Alcyone learnt of his demise, she threw herself off a cliff. The goddess of marriage Hera, pitying the unfortunate couple, transformed them both into kingfishers,Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.151.xml 11.410-748] a story also supported by Virgil,Virgil, Georgics [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/virgil-georgics/1916/pb_LCL063.127.xml 1.399] Apollodorus,Apollodorus, Bibliotheca [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollodorus_mythographer-library/1921/pb_LCL121.57.xml 1.7.4] and Hyginus.Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#65 65] Pseudo-Probus, Ovid and Hyginus all make the metamorphosis the origin of the etymology for "halcyon days", the seven days in winter when storms never occur so the birds can lay their eggs.

Despite Ovid going by a different version than the one pseudo-Probus had in mind, he evidently knew (and referenced) both of them, albeit the other (concerning the daughter of Sciron) in a very subtle and obscure way in the lines:{{sfn|Gildenhard|2017|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=wiMxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT164 164]}}{{sfn|Pagès|Villagra|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 206]}}

{{Blockquote|Borne hence by her dragons sprung from Titans's blood, she entered the citadel of Pallas, which beheld [...] the granddaughter of Polypemon upborne by new-sprung wings.|title=Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.371.xml 7.398-401]}}

It is possible that the original myth was a simpler version closer to Nicander's one, where a woman named Alcyone wept for her unnamed husband; Ceyx was probably added later due to him being an important figure in poetry, and having a wife named Alcyone (as evidenced from the Hesiodic poem The Wedding of Ceyx).{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|page=240}}

{{portal|Mythology|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome}}

• Titus Andronicus
• Aerope
• Io
• Nyctaea

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book | author = Apollodorus | title = The Library | volume = I: Books 1-3.9 | translator = James G. Frazer | series = Loeb Classical Library 121 | location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 1921}}
• {{cite book | author-link = Robert S. P. Beekes | last = Beekes | first = Robert S. P. | title = Etymological Dictionary of Greek | location = Leiden, the Netherlands | publisher = Brill Publications | date = 2009 | volume = 1 | isbn = 978-90-04-17420-7 | series = Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series | editor = Lucien van Beek}}
• {{cite book | title = Metamorphosis in Greek Myths | first = Paul M. C. | last = Forbes Irving | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1990 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=URvXAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-19-814730-9}}
• {{cite book | title = Transformative Change in Western Thought: A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood | first = Ingo | last = Gildenhard | isbn = 978-1-907975-01-1 | publisher = Routledge | date = July 5, 2017 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wiMxDwAAQBAJ}}
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html The Myths of Hyginus]. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
• {{cite book | first1 = Henry George | last1 = Liddell | first2 = Robert | last2 = Scott | title = A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1940 | author1-link = Henry Liddell | author2-link = Robert Scott (philologist)}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 Online version at Perseus.tufts project.]
• {{cite book | first1 = Phillip | last1 = Mitsis | last2 = Ziogas | first2 = Ioannis | title = Wordplay and Powerplay in Latin Poetry | isbn = 978-3-11-047252-3 | date = July 28, 2016 | publisher = De Gruyter | location = Germany | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G-zCDAAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite book | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | title = Metamorphoses | volume = I: Books 1-8 | translator = Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold | series = Loeb Classical Library 42 | location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 1916 | isbn = 9780674990463 | url = https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL042/1916/volume.xml}}
• {{cite book | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | title = Metamorphoses | volume = II: Books 9-15 | translator = Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold | series = Loeb Classical Library 43 | location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 1916 | isbn = 9780674990470 | url = https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL043/1916/volume.xml}}
• {{cite book | title = Myths on the Margins of Homer: Prolegomena to the Mythographus Homericus | first1 = Joan | last1 = Pagès | first2 = Nereida | last2 = Villagra | publisher = De Gruyter | date = May 9, 2022 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ | isbn = 9783110751154}}
• Valerius Probus, In Vergillii Bucolica et Georgica Commentarius, 1848. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vifrcunwIXAC Online version on Google books.]
• {{cite book | author = Virgil | author-link = Virgil | title = Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1-6 | translator = H. Rushton Fairclough, revised by G. P. Goold | series = Loeb Classical Library 63 | location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 1916}}

• {{wiktionary-inline|ἀλκυών}}

{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}

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Category:Metamorphoses characters

Category:Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology

Category:Mythological people from Attica

Category:Women in Greek mythology