InGreek mythology,Alcyone (Ancient Greek:Ἀλκυόνη,romanized: Alkuónē,lit. 'kingfisher') is a minor figure fromAttica who was transformed into the bird bearing her name after she was murdered by her own fatherSciron.[1] Her tale is a variation on the more known myth of the origins of the kingfisher, starringAlcyone and Ceyx.[2]
Alkyóne comes from alkyón (ἀλκυών), which refers to a sea-bird with a mournful song[3] or to akingfisher bird in particular.[4] The meaning(s) of the words is uncertain becausealkyón is considered to be of pre-Greek, non-Indo-european origin.[5] However,folk etymology related them to theháls (ἅλς, "brine, sea, salt") andkyéo (κυέω, "I conceive").[6]
Alkyóne originally is written with asmooth breathing mark, but this false origin beginning with arough breathing mark (transliterated as the letter H) led to the common misspellingshalkyón (ἁλκυών) andHalkyóne (Ἁλκυόνη),[6] and thus the name of one of the kingfisher birdgenus' in EnglishHalcyon. It is also speculated that Alkyóne is derived fromalké (ἀλκή, "prowess, battle, guard") andonéo (ὀνέω, fromὀνίνεμι,onínemi,[7] "to help, to please").[citation needed]
According toPseudo-Probus's commentary onVirgil, Alcyone was the daughter of an Attic man namedSciron, the son ofPolypemon. 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.[8] 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 akingfisher, an aquatic bird beloved by the sea-goddessThetis.[9]
Pseudo-Probus says that the version with Sciron is Theodorus's, from a lostMetamorphoses work of his; he adds thatOvid in his ownMetamorphoses is going byNicander's version of the story (which has also been lost).[9][8][10] Nicander was a second-century BC Greek poet and grammarian whose lost works about transformation myths heavily influenced later authors, including Ovid.
In theMetamorphoses, Ovid writes thatAlcyone 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 marriageJuno (GreekHera), pitying the unfortunate couple, transformed them both into kingfishers, so they could still be together.[11] This version of the story is also supported byVirgil,Apollodorus, andHyginus.[12] 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 (the one concerning the daughter of Sciron) in a very subtle and obscure way in the lines:[10][8]
Borne hence by her dragons sprung fromTitans's blood,she entered the citadel ofPallas, which beheld [...] the granddaughter of Polypemon upborne by new-sprung wings.
— Ovid,Metamorphoses7.398-401 (trans. Frank Justus Miller)
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 and became the bird; Ceyx was probably added later due to him being an important figure in poetry, and having a wife named Alcyone (as evidenced from the lostHesiodic epic poemTheWedding of Ceyx).[13]
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