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Ceyx and Halcyone
The Halcyone Birds
Part I
Ceyx was King of Thessaly, where he reigned in peace without violence or wrong. He was son of Hesperus, the Day-star, and the glow of his beauty reminded one of his father. Halcyone, the daughter of Aeolus, was his wife, and devotedly attached to him. Now Ceyx was in deep affliction for the loss of his brother, and direful prodigies following his brother's death made him feel as if the gods were hostile to him. He thought best therefore to make a voyage to Claros in Ionia, to consult the oracle of Apollo. But as soon as he disclosed his intention to his wife Halcyone, a shudder ran through her frame, and her face grew deadly pale. She tried to discourage him, by describing the violence of the winds, which she had known familiarly when she lived at home in her father's house, Aeolus being the god of the winds, and having as much as he could do to restrain them. But if you must go," she added, "dear husband, let me go with you, Otherwise I shall suffer, not only the real evils which you must encounter, but those also which my fears suggest."
These words weighed heavily on the mind of king Ceyx, and it was no less his own wish than hers to take her with him, but he could not bear to expose her to the dangers of the sea. He told her that he would not take her with him, consoled her as well as he could, and finished with the words: "I promise, by the rays of my father the Day-star, that if fate permits I will return before the moon shall have twice rounded her orb." When he had thus spoken he ordered the vessel to be drawn out of the ship-house, and the oars and sails to be put aboard. When Halcyone saw these preparations she shuddered, as if with a presentiment of evil. With tears and sobs she said farewell, and then fell senseless to the ground.
Ceyx would still have lingered, but now the young men grasped their oars and pulled vigorously through the waves, with long and measured strokes. Halcyone raised her streaming eyes, and saw her husband standing on the deck, waving his hand to her. The vessel slowly drifted out of her sight. Then, retiring to her chamber, she threw herself on her solitary couch.
Out at sea, the ship encountered a deadly storm. The men were stupefied with terror. Ceyx thought of Halcyone. No name but hers was on his lips, and while he yearned for her, he yet rejoiced in her absence. The ship was torn apart. Some of the seamen drowned instantly, others clung to fragments of the wreck. Ceyx held fast to a plank, calling for help, alas, in vain. He prayed that the waves may bear his body back to Halcyone. At length the waters overwhelmed him, and he sank. The Day-star looked dim that night. Since it could not leave the heavens, it shrouded its face with clouds.
Halcyone, ignorant of all these horrors, counted the days till her husband's promised return. To all the gods she offered frequent incense but more than all to Hera. For her husband, who was no more, she prayed incessantly; that he might be safe; that he might come home; that he might not, in his absence, see any one that he would love better than her. But of all these prayers, the last was the only one destined to be granted. The goddess, at length, could not bear any longer to be pleaded with for one already dead, and to have hands raised to her altars, that ought rather to be offering funeral rites. She summoned Iris to ask Hypnos, the god of sleep, te send a vision to Halcyone, in the form of Ceyx, and to make known to her the event of his death.
