Alcyone and Ceyx

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}}

Kéyx as referring to a sea-bird appears to be related to kaúax ({{lang|grc|καύαξ}}),{{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=691}} which is a ravenous sea-bird ({{lang|grc|λάρος}}, láros). These suggest that Kéyx may have been turned into either a sea mew or a tern.{{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=657}}

File:Herbert James Draper - Halcyone (1915).jpg, Halcyone, 1915.]]

Alcyone was a Thessalian princess, the daughter of King Aeolus of Aeolia, either by EnareteApollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=7&highlight=Alcyone 1.7.3] or Aegiale. She was the sister of Salmoneus, Athamas, Sisyphus, Cretheus, Perieres, Deioneus, Magnes, Calyce, Canace, Pisidice and Perimede.

Later on, Alcyone became the queen of Trachis after marrying King Ceyx. The latter was the son of Eosphorus (often translated as Lucifer).Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.271 The couple were very happy together in Trachis.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, this couple often sacrilegiously called each other "Zeus" and "Hera".Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 15; Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.7.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=7&highlight=Alcyone 1.7.4] 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.

OvidOvid, Metamorphoses [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028&layout=&loc=11.411 11.410 ff.-748] (also [http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Metamorph11.htm#_Toc64105704 here] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050419213419/http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Metamorph11.htm|date=2005-04-19}}) and HyginusHyginus, Fabulae [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae2.html#65 65] 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.Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC |Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology |page= 55}} 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.{{cite book | title = Transformative Change in Western Thought: A History of Metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood | first = Ingo | last = Gildenhard | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=wiMxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT164 164] | isbn = 978-1-907975-01-1 | publisher = Routledge | date = July 5, 2017 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wiMxDwAAQBAJ}}

Virgil in the Georgics also alludes to the myth—again without reference to Zeus's anger.Virgil, Georgics [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D393 1.399] - "[At that time] not to the sun's warmth then upon the shore / Do halcyons dear to Thetis ope their wings"

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).{{cite book | last = Forbes Irving | date = 1990 | page = 240 | title = Metamorphosis in Greek Myths | first = Paul M. C. | publisher = Clarendon Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=URvXAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-19-814730-9}}

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 14 days each year (seven days on either side of the shortest day of the year{{cite book|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ACL3129.0001.001/123|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|year=1867|series=Volume 1|page=108|quote=It was fabled, that during the seven days before, and as many after, the shortest day of the year, while the bird ἀλκυών, was breeding, there always prevailed calms at sea.|editor=William Smith}}) 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. The phrase has since come to refer to any peaceful time. 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 according to the myth. Kingfishers however do not live by the sea, so Ovid's tale is not based on any actual observations of the species and in fact refers to a mythical bird only later identified with the kingfisher.

The expression {{lang|grc|ἀλκῠονίδες ἡμέραι}} ({{grc-transl|ἀλκῠονίδες ἡμέραι}}) first occurs in Aristophanes' play The Birds 1594, then again in Aristotle, Philochorus, and Lucian.Liddell, Scott, Jones, Greek Lexicon, s.v. {{lang|grc|ἀλκῠονίς}}. In Latin it occurs as {{lang|la|alcyonides dies}} in Pliny the Elder, {{lang|la|alcyonei}} (-nĭī) {{lang|la|diēs}} in Columella and Varro, {{lang|la|alcyonia}} in Hyginus, and {{lang|la|alcedonia}} in Plautus and Frontinus.Lewis and Short, Latin Dictionary.

• Various kinds of kingfishers are named after the couple, in reference to the metamorphosis myth:
• The genus Ceyx (within the river kingfishers family) is named after him
• The kingfisher family Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers) is named after Alcyone, as is the genus Halcyon.
• The belted kingfisher's Latin species name (Megaceryle alcyon) also references her name.
• Their story features in The Book of the Duchess.
• Their story is the basis for the opera Alcyone by the French composer Marin Marais and the cantata Alcyone by Maurice Ravel
• A collection of Canada's celebrated nature poet, Archibald Lampman, Alcyone, his final set of poetry published posthumously in 1899, highlights both Lampman's apocalyptic and utopian visions of the future.
• T. S. Eliot draws from this myth in The Dry Salvages: "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."

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.

• Halcyon (dialogue)

{{Reflist}}

• 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. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html 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. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 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. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics of Vergil. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0058 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• {{SmithDGRBM|wstitle=Alcyone|ref=none}}

{{Commons category|Ceyx and Alcyone}}

• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070405150919/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0685.html Smith entry]}}
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000116 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Alcyone and Ceyx)]

{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}

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