Article for 2010 Jun 06
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2010
2010 May
Jun 06 Sun
“Halcyon” is my new favourite word. It can be used as an adjective and as a noun.
As a noun it can refer to a kingfisher, or a Greek mythological type of kingfisher that nests on the shore in the week around the winter solstice (21 December in the northern hemisphere), whose father (Aeolus the God of Winds) calms the sea so the halcyon can nest in those days.
As an adjective, the word “halcyon” can mean calm and peaceful (like the sea when the halcyon nests). Or the word can mean “of or resembling a kingfisher”.
The Greeks’ myth of how the halcyon became is as follows: Aeolus (god of the winds) had a daughter called Alcyone. Alcyone fell in love (and married) Ceyx, whose father was the god of the Morning Star. Ceyx and Alcyone loved each other very much, and jokingly called each-other Zeus and Hera (Zeus and Hera are the king and queen of the Gods). This angered Zeus (Zeus gets angry easily; many Greek myths involve his wrath), so Zeus set a thunder-bolt to kill Ceyx when Ceyx was sailing. As a ghost, Ceyx returned to Alcyone to inform her of his death. Understandably, Alcyone was very sad, so drowned herself. Other gods pitied the pair of now-dead lovers, so they resurrected them as halcyons.