Ceyx

Ceyx is the name of two figures in Greek mythology, or of one king of Trachis whom the sources tell about in two ways. The first Ceyx was a son of Eosphorus (Phosphorus), the morning star, and the husband of Alcyone; the two were changed into sea birds, the origin of the “halcyon days”. The second Ceyx, king of Trachis in Thessaly, was the friend and host of Heracles and sheltered his children after his death.

Ceyx and Alcyone

Ovid names Ceyx as a king of Trachis, who ruled without violence or bloodshed. He was the son of Lucifer, the morning star, and carried his father’s brightness in his face. Alcyone, his wife, was a daughter of Aeolus, keeper of the winds (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.266–273, 11.431, 11.573). Ceyx was grieving for his brother Daedalion when Peleus arrived at Trachis in exile.

Troubled by portents, Ceyx decided to sail to consult the oracle of Apollo at Claros. Alcyone begged him not to go, warning him that the winds, though her father kept them, were fierce once released. He sailed anyway. Half the sea was crossed when a storm broke at nightfall. The ship broke up, and Ceyx clung to a piece of wreckage, calling on his father-in-law and his father, but mostly on Alcyone, until a wave closed over his head. The morning star hid its face behind the clouds (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.410–572).

Alcyone, who knew nothing of this, kept praying to Juno (Hera) for her husband. The goddess could no longer bear prayers for a dead man and sent Iris to the house of Sleep, asking him to send a dream in the likeness of the dead Ceyx. Sleep chose Morpheus, who took Ceyx’s shape, pale and dripping wet, and stood before Alcyone’s bed to tell her what had happened. In the morning she went down to the shore and saw a body drifting in. She recognised her husband, leapt on to the breakwater and, as she did so, became a bird. Ceyx too was changed, when the gods pitied them. Their love stayed, and as birds they mate and rear young (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.573–748).

In Ovid the transformation comes from the gods’ pity. In another version, told by Apollodorus, the couple were punished for their pride: he called his wife Hera and she called him Zeus, and Zeus turned her into a kingfisher (alcyon) and him into a bird called ceyx (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.4).

The Halcyon Days

Ovid ends the story with the nesting of the halcyon. During seven calm days in winter, Alcyone broods on nests floating on the sea. Then the sea lies still, since Aeolus keeps the winds in and gives calm water to his grandchildren (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.745–748).

Ceyx of Trachis and Heracles

A king named Ceyx also appears as the friend of Heracles. In Hesiod’s Shield of Heracles Heracles says he is driving to Trachis, to king Ceyx, who is first in Trachis in power and honour, and whose daughter Themistonoe is the wife of Heracles’ opponent Cycnus. After Heracles kills Cycnus, Ceyx buries him (Shield of Heracles 353–356, 472–476). Apollodorus says that Heracles, going into exile after killing a boy by accident, went to Ceyx at Trachis, and that he was received there and conquered the Dryopes (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.6–7). Ceyx’s son Hippasus died fighting at Heracles’ side in the war against Eurytus (Apollodorus, Library 2.7.7).

Pausanias says that when Heracles left Tiryns, fleeing from Eurystheus, he went to live with his friend Ceyx, king of Trachis. After Heracles died, his sons fled from Eurystheus and came to Ceyx (Apollodorus, Library 2.8.1). Pausanias adds that Ceyx, king of Trachis, sent them on to Athens, since he was too weak to protect them and Theseus had power enough (Pausanias 1.32.6). Ovid, too, gives the husband of Alcyone the kingdom of Trachis, and the two Ceyxes are probably the same man, though the sources do not say so outright.

Ceyx Sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.266–748; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.4, 2.7.6–7 and 2.8.1; Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 353–356 and 472–476; Pausanias 1.32.6.

See Also: Eosphorus, Alcyone, Aeolus, Zeus, Hera, Heracles, Eurystheus, Peleus