The weeks on either side of the winter solstice have a special place in Greek mythology. In the story of Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus, she marries Ceyx, who arrogantly dares to compare their relationship to that of Zeus and Hera. Such hubris is never a good thing in Greek myth, and Zeus causes his death. But the gods eventually take pity on the mortal couple, changing them into birds known for their devotion to each other. Those birds, named after Alcyone, were said to nest on the surface of the sea during calm weather, giving rise to our term halcyon days. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Halcyon Days”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
The weeks on either side of the winter solstice were special in ancient Greek mythology.
And therein Grant lies the story of the origin of a lovely English word.
You’ll tell it?
I will.
You may recall that in Greek myth, Eolus was the god of the winds, and he had a daughter named Alcyone.
She fell in love with a mortal named Siix, and they had this incredible, blissfully happy marriage.
But their big mistake was that Seix and Alcyone were so happy that they dared compare their relationship to that of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods.
And you know, in ancient Greece, you don’t do that, right?
You don’t show hubris like that.
And in telenovelas, which it sounds like you’re describing.
Yeah, sort of the same thing.
This is the ancient version.
So when Seix was traveling on a ship, Zeus, in a fit of rage, sent a storm to wreck it.
And his wife, Alcyone, had this premonition about her husband’s death.
And so she went down to the seashore to look for him.
And sure enough, there the body of her beloved husband washed up on the shore.
And she was so despondent that the gods finally felt sorry for her, as they often do in Greek myths.
So they changed both Alcyone and her husband into kingfishers.
Now, these are birds whose devotion to each other is legendary.
And in honor of Alcyone, the Greeks gave her name to this bird.
And tradition holds that just before and after the winter solstice,
The descendants of this devoted pair of birds charm the seas for just a couple of weeks.
And during that time, the surface of the sea is so calm that they nest on the water and they hatch their eggs.
And this period of calm seas and happiness gave us an English term for a period of happy tranquility.
Those happy days of Alcyone became, in English, halcyon days.
Oh, very good.
Do king fishers actually nest on water?
I think maybe they do.
Really?
Like floating nests?
It’s myth.
I don’t know.
Maybe.
Yeah.
And then they light themselves on fire.
And then they come back as comets.
I love mythology for that.
We read some of that to my son.
It’s always like one more thing.
You think that they’re done, and they’re like, and then he grew antlers.
And now you know the rest of the story about Halsey Nutt.
That’s the rest of the story.
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