28 A GLOSSARY OF GREEK BIRDS 



AAIAETOI (continued}. 



s. v. aeros), and Nisus or 'AXiciero? plunges, like the setting Sun, into 

 the sea. Ciris, Ketpi? (with which I believe KeipuXos- or <f]pv\os to be 

 connected), or Scylla is the Moon (cf. Porphyr. De Abst. iii. 17), which, 

 as the watery goddess, appears in some forms of the legend as a fish. 

 The last lines of the poem Ciris are of 'peculiar importance, where the 

 mutual pursuit and flight of Haliaetus and Ciris are described, and com- 

 pared with the alternate appearance and disappearance of the opposite 

 constellations of Scorpio and Orion : Quacunque ilia levem fugiens 

 secat aethera pennis, Ecce inimicus atrox magno stridore per auras 

 Insequitur Nisus : qua se fert Nisus ad auras, Ilia levem fugiens 

 raptim secat aethera pennis : it is the Moon in opposition, the Moon 

 at the full, which (strictly speaking, at the sacred season of the equinox) 

 sets and rises as the Sun rises and sets. Cf. also Cornutus, p. 72 L 

 (teste Keller) Kvvrjyia ' f'oine KOI TO ^ diaXeirrftv avrrjV ore p.ev 8ia)KOV(Tav 

 TOV rjXiov ore e (pevyoixrav . . . ovx eWpa 8' ovtra avrrjs rj 'EKar/7, &C. The 

 full understanding of the stories of d^Scoy, Procne, Philomela, and the 

 whole Tereus-legend, depends on the further elucidation of this myth. 

 Were it not for the comparison drawn with Scorpio and Orion, we 

 might be rather disposed to refer the description to the Moon in the 

 last quarter, stationed in advance of and as it were in flight before 

 the Sun. The same four lines occur in Virg. Georg. i. 406-409, where 

 I venture to think they are out of place and keeping. 



AAIA'nOAA' TOV Kenfpov, rj Ba\amov opvtv . . . Hesych. (verb. dub). 



A bird, doubtless the Halcyon. 



Ibyc. fr. 8 (13) ap. Athen. ix. 388 D, according to Hermann and 

 Schneidewin. Others read \a6nroptpvpi8es, v. Bergk, P. Lyric. Gr. iii. 

 p. 239. Cf. Alcman 12 (26) a\nr6p(pvpos ettpos opvts (vide s. v. K^puXos), 

 whence Tennyson ' The sea-blue bird of March 3 (on which, see Whitley 

 Stokes and others, Academy xxv. 1884; also Tennyson in Nature 

 Notes, i. p. 93, ii. p. 173, where the Laureate alters the epithet). I am 

 not inclined to admit that aXiTro'ptpupo? means sea-blue, nor that it is 

 anything so simple as a mere colour-epithet ; cf. 



'AAKYii'N s. dXicuwi'. Also d\icvovis (Ap. Rhod. i. 1085, Epigr. Gr. 205 

 &c.), and aX/uW, Hesych. Cretan avKvvv, Hesych. On the aspirate, 

 see Forstemann, Curt. Zeitschr. iii. 48. Not from aX? : cf. Lat. a/c-edo. 

 Probably connected with O. P. halak or harac the Sun, and so akin 

 to a\KTpv(>)v and tfXeKTpov, also to 'Hpa/cX^s and to many other proper 

 names, e. g. Alc-inous. 



The Halcyon, a symbolic or mystical bird, early identified with the 

 Kingfisher, Alcedo ispida, L. The Kingfisher is called, in Mod. 



