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Chairephon
What is the cry, Sokrates, that comes to us from the distant breakers on the headland yonder? How sweet it sounds! What creature has such a note as that? Surely the water-fowl are voiceless.Sokrates
Nay, it is a sea-bird, Chairephon, called the halcyon, full of plaints and tears, and a legend about her has long been current among men. They say that she was once a woman, the daughter of Aiolos, son of Hellen, and married to Ceyx the Trachinian, who was the son of the Morning-star, fair son of a fair father. And when her young husband died she mourned for him, longing for his love. Then by some god's will (they say) she took on the feathery guise of a bird, and flits about the seas seeking him; for she could not find him on the land, though she searched the world over.Halcyon. Pseudo-Lucian. Emily James Smith (Translator). United States. 2023-08-01.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.