KYKNOI 107 



KYKNOI {continued). 



(Reiske) ; cf. Hor. C. ii. 20, Ovid, Her. vii. I, Met. xiv. 430, Mart. xiii. 

 77, Stat. Silv. ii. 4, 10, &c, &c. The singing swan a portent of death, 

 Artemid. Oneirocr. ii. 20. Modern allusions are innumerable ; cf. 

 Chaucer, P. of Fowles, 342, Tennyson, ' The Dying Swan,' &c. ; see 

 also for numerous references, Douce's Illustr. of Shakspeare, i. 262, 

 Lenz, Zool. d. Gr. u. R., pp. 384-400, &c. 



The Swan's song was discredited by some, e.g. Alex. Mynd. ap. 

 Athen. ix. 393 d ; Lucian, De Electro seu Cycnis ; Cic. Tusc. Quaest. i ; 

 Philostr. V. Apollon. iii. c. 23 ; Plin. x. (23) 32 ; cf. Greg. Nazianz. Ep. i. 

 tot qo-ovTdi kvkvol, otciv KoXoiol criconrjacoo'iv. Cf. Scaliger, Ferrariae 

 multos cygnos vidimus, sed cantores sane malos, neque melius ansere 

 canere ; cf. also Aldrov. Ornith. iii. 19, 5 ; Wormius in Mus. Worm. iii. 

 c. 19 ; Mauduit ap. Plin. ed. Panckoucke, vii. 385 ; Voss. De Idol. ii. 

 p. 1212 ; Pierius, De Cycnis, p. 254 ; Brown's Vulg. Errours, iii. p. 27 ; 

 the curious conjectures of Bryant, Anc. Mythol. ii. 353-384; Pallas, 

 Zoogr. ross.-asiat., ii. p. 212, and recent writers. Modern naturalists 

 accept the story of the singing swans, asserting that though the 

 Common Swan cannot sing, yet the Whooper or Whistling Swan does 

 so. It is certain that the Whooper sings, for many ornithologists 

 state the fact, but I do not think it can sing very well ; at the very 

 best, dant sonitum rauci per stagna loqimcia cygni. This concrete 

 explanation is quite inadequate ; it is beyond a doubt that the Swan's 

 Song (like the Halcyon's) veiled, and still hides, some mystical allusion. 

 Applied as an epithet to a poet, especially an old poet ; Eur. H. F. 

 691 tvaiavas 8' itii vols peXddpois \ kvkvos cos yepcov doibos \ noXidv en 

 yevvcov | KeXadrjarco, Id. Bacch. 1361 ; Posidipp. xi in Gk. Anth. ii. 48 

 aiydaOco Zi]vozv 6 crocpos kvkvos : Christod. Ecph. 384, ib. iii. 175 Qrj^s S' 

 'Q,yvyir]s 'eXikcovios Iotcito kvkvos, JJivdapos ifxepocpatvos : Anacreon is the 

 * Swan of Teos,' Antip. i. 26, cf. Hor. C. iv. 2, 25. Cf. Horap. ii. 39 

 yepovTa povaiKov ftovXopevoi crr)p,rjvai kvkvov £coypa(povo~iv' ovtos yap 

 rjdvTciTOV peXos qdei yr)pdo~Kcov. 



The Swan of Leda.— Cf. Eur. I. T. 794, 1104, Hel. 1 9, &c, Here. F. 

 690, Orest. 1388; also various passages in the Anthology, e.g. Pallad. 

 40, in Gk. Anth. iii. 123, Anon. ib. iv. 118, 128, &c. j cf. Lucian, De Deor. 

 20, 14 (1. 264). For mythographic references, see Hygin. Fab. 77, 

 P. Astron. ii. 8, German, c. 24, Eratosth. c. 25, Theon. p. 136, &c. 

 According to these latter authors, the mythology of the Swan is 

 inseparable from the phenomena attending the constellation Cygnus. 

 The stellar Swan lies in the Milky Way, 'the river of heaven'; it is 

 adjacent to the constellation Lyra ; it rose a little in advance of the 

 Eagle, but, lying more to the north, it only set some time after the 

 Eagle had gone down : that is to say, it was attacked by the Eagle, 

 but in turn defeated it, cf. Arist. H. A. ix. 12, 615 b, Ael. xvii. 24, &c. ; 



