Αλκυονη
The daughter of Aeolus, the king of winds. She married Ceyx, the son of the morning star, Eosphorus or Lucifer. Their household was so happy that they compared themselves to Zeus and Hera. Annoyed at such pride, the gods changed them both into birds, a diver and a halcyon respectively. Since Alcyone made her nest on the edge of the sea and the waves relentlessly destroyed it Zeus took pity on her and commanded that the waves should calm during the seven days before after the winter solstice, the period when the halcyon was hatching her eggs. These are called the halcyon days, when storms are unknown.
Ovid tells a perceptibly different tale. Ceyx, the husband of Alcyone, had decided to go away to consult an oracle. During his voyage he ran into a sudden storm, his ship was wrecked and he himself drowned. His body was washed by the flood tide on to the coast where it was found by his wife. In her despair she was changed into a bird with a mournful song and the gods granted her husband a similar change.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Scholia on Hom. Il. 9, 562
- Apollod. Bibl. 1, 7, 4
- Hyg. Fab. 65
- Ovid, Met. 11, 410ff.