The Halcyon (1-2)

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.

Chairephon Is this, then, the halcyon? I had never heard the note before, and it fell upon my ear like something quite new. Certainly the How large a creature sings a mournful song. bird may it be, Sokrates?

Sokrates Small, and yet her wifely love won great honor from the gods; for in the nestingtime of these birds the world observes the "halcyon days," as they are called, which bring an interval of fine weather in midwinter. To-day is a perfect example of them. Do you not see how clear the air is? and the expanse of sea, how waveless and calm! Like a mirror, one might say.

Chairephon Yes; this certainly seems to be a halcyon day, and yesterday was just such another. But tell me, Sokrates, how in the name of the gods can we possibly believe those old stories that tell of birds changing into women or women into birds? All those things seem to the last degree impossible.