The myth of Alcyon

   

We are used to say "The Alcyon(kingfisher bird) days of January," but those days are placed between December 15 and February 15.

But how came this name? The ancient Greeks observed in the dead of winter some sunny days. These days a bird, the kingfisher lays its eggs.

According to legend, the kingfisher bird before, she was a beautiful girl, daughter of Aeolus, god of wind and virtuous.

Alcyone was married to Ceyx and was thrilled. They spent so beautiful, who began to think slowly - slowly that they are not ordinary mortals, but as equal with the 12 gods of Olympus.

Ceyx thought of himself as equivalent of Zeus and Kingfisher believed was equally Hera. Even started to call each other the names of the Gods. This provoked the wrath of Zeus. When he found that, he was so angry that he threw a thunderbolt at his ship and he Ceyx unable to fight the raging waves, drowned.

Alcyone expect her man to shore and as time passed and the time for the agony of further grew. Through the raging sea all you can now to face was some wood from the boat of Ceyx. Then she began crying inconsolable. Days and nights morned the loss of her beloved Ceyx. Zeus in the end took pity and transformed her into a beautiful bird with shiny blue feathers, the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).

The kingfisher lives and reproduces near coasts, rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal lagoons of Greece, Cyprus and Europe in general. It is as if waiting to appear through waves her beloved Kunkel.

But the torment of the kingfisher does not end here. Giving birth her eggs into the heavy winter and sits t them on stones and rocks on the coast. Sometimes roughened waves  on the nest sdestroyed her and the eggs.

Zeus again showing compassion to the kingfisher and lets into the heart of winter, the winds die down and the sun shining, helping the kingfisher to sit on her eggs.