Alcyone

Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus and the wife of Ceyx, king of Trachis, who was drowned at sea; she was turned into the kingfisher (in Greek alkyon) and he into a sea bird. In Ovid’s telling, the story explains the calm days of midwinter on which the kingfisher nests on the water.

Family

Apollodorus makes Alcyone a daughter of Aeolus, son of Hellen, and Enarete, daughter of Deimachus; her brothers were Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes and Perieres, and her sisters Canace, Pisidice, Calyce and Perimede (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3). In Ovid her father is Aeolus, called the son of Hippotas, who keeps the winds shut up and lets them out when he pleases (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.431–432). Her husband Ceyx was a son of Lucifer, the morning star (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.4); Ovid says that he ruled Trachis without violence and carried his father’s brightness in his face (Metamorphoses 11.269–272).

Ceyx and Alcyone in Apollodorus

Apollodorus tells it in a few lines. Ceyx and Alcyone “perished by reason of their pride; for he said that his wife was Hera, and she said that her husband was Zeus. But Zeus turned them into birds; her he made a kingfisher and him a gannet” (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.4). Apollodorus gives no account of how Ceyx died, and calls the bird Ceyx became a ceyx, a kind of sea bird.

Ovid’s Version

Ovid gives the fullest account and does not mention a boast. Ceyx, troubled by dire omens, decides to sail to the oracle of Apollo at Claros. Alcyone begs him not to go: she is afraid of the sea, and says that her father, who keeps the winds, cannot be trusted to restrain them once they are loose. She asks to go with him, but he will not put her in danger, and sets out (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.410–450). The ship is caught in a storm at sea, and Ceyx, clinging to a fragment of wood, calls on his wife as he drowns (Metamorphoses 11.474–572).

Alcyone, unaware, counts the nights and prays to Juno for her husband’s return. Juno, who cannot bear the prayers for a dead man, sends Iris to the house of Sleep, with the order that he send Alcyone a dream in the shape of the drowned Ceyx, with a true account of what happened (Metamorphoses 11.573–632). Sleep chooses his son Morpheus, who can imitate any human form, voice and speech. Morpheus flies to Trachis, takes Ceyx’s shape, pale and naked and with water dripping from his hair, and tells Alcyone that he is dead, caught by the south wind in the Aegean (Metamorphoses 11.633–668).

In the morning she goes to the shore and sees a body in the waves, which the water carries close until she recognises her husband. She leaps on to the mole that breaks the waves, and finds that she is flying: she is changed into a bird that skims the water with her new wings, and when she embraces the dead body with her wings and kisses it with her beak, the gods take pity and Ceyx too is changed into a bird (Metamorphoses 11.710–742).

The Halcyon Days

Their love continued in their new form. Ovid says that they mate and have young, and for seven calm days in winter Alcyone sits on her nest floating on the sea; during that time the sea is still, because Aeolus guards the winds and keeps them in, giving his grandchildren calm water (Metamorphoses 11.743–748).

Other Women Named Alcyone

Alcyone is the name of several other figures. One of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas and Pleione, was called Alcyone (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.1). Another was a daughter of Sthenelus and Nicippe (Library 2.4.5). In the Iliad, Cleopatra, wife of Meleager, is said to have been called Alcyone by her parents, because her mother wept like the halcyon when Apollo carried her off (Homer, Iliad 9.561–564).

Alcyone Sources

Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3–4, 2.4.5, 3.10.1; Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.269–272, 11.410–748; Homer, Iliad 9.561–564.

See Also: Aeolus, Enarete, Ceyx, Phosphorus, Zeus, Hera, Morpheus