In Greek mythology, Alcyone (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκυόνη, romanized: Αlkuónē) is a minor figure who was transformed into the bird bearing her name after she was murdered by her own father Sciron.[1] Her tale is a variation on the more known myth of the kingfisher, starring Alcyone and Ceyx.[2]
Alkyóne comes from alkyón (ἀλκυών), which refers to a sea-bird with a mournful song[3] or to a kingfisher bird in particular.[4] The meaning(s) of the words is uncertain because alkyón is considered to be of pre-Greek, non-Indo-european origin.[5] However, folk etymology related them to the háls (ἅλς, "brine, sea, salt") and kyéo (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 (ἁλκυών) and Halkyóne (Ἁλκυόνη),[6] and thus the name of one of the kingfisher bird genus' in English Halcyon. It is also speculated that Alkyóne is derived from alké (ἀλκή, "prowess, battle, guard") and onéo (ὀνέω, from ὀνίνεμι, onínemi,[7] "to help, to please").[8]
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, whereupon she was transformed into a kingfisher, an aquatic bird beloved by the sea-goddess Thetis.[9][10]
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).[9][10][11] 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,[12] a story also supported by Virgil,[13] Apollodorus,[14] and Hyginus.[15] 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 second in a very subtle and obscure way in the lines:[11][10]
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.
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 Wedding of Ceyx).[16]
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