Greek Myths - Alcyone & Ceyx
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Would you want your husband to come back from the dead if it was in the guise of a bird, and you had to become a kingfisher too in order to live and love with him?
When she learned that her husband Ceyx was drowned at sea, his wife, the Queen of Thessaly and daughter of the god of the wind, made to the shore, to drown herself so that they would again be reunited. When Alcyone saw his body floating towards her on the waves she leapt towards it, hoping for death to embrace her too, but in that instant was changed into a kingfisher. Which made her journey across the water that much easier. And when she reached her husband, it is said that Alcyone tried to kiss him with her beak, and enfold his body with her wings. (Either kingfishers were a lot bigger then, or it should be presumed that Ceyx was a quite a little man.) At this, Ceyx too became a kingfisher. Of proportionate size to his wife. And alive. All of which made them both very happy. In such a form, the loving pair were able to live out their days together as birds on the water, as reward by the gods for devotion to one another. Aaw.
When she learned that her husband Ceyx was drowned at sea, his wife, the Queen of Thessaly and daughter of the god of the wind, made to the shore, to drown herself so that they would again be reunited. When Alcyone saw his body floating towards her on the waves she leapt towards it, hoping for death to embrace her too, but in that instant was changed into a kingfisher. Which made her journey across the water that much easier. And when she reached her husband, it is said that Alcyone tried to kiss him with her beak, and enfold his body with her wings. (Either kingfishers were a lot bigger then, or it should be presumed that Ceyx was a quite a little man.) At this, Ceyx too became a kingfisher. Of proportionate size to his wife. And alive. All of which made them both very happy. In such a form, the loving pair were able to live out their days together as birds on the water, as reward by the gods for devotion to one another. Aaw.
