Editing Alcyone and Ceyx (section)

== Halcyon days ==
Ovid and Hyginus both also make the metamorphosis the origin of the term "[[wiktionary:halcyon days|halcyon days]]", the seven days in winter when storms never occur. They state that these were originally the 14 days each year (seven days on either side of the [[winter solstice|shortest day of the year]]<ref>{{cite book|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ACL3129.0001.001/123|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|year=1867|series=Volume 1|page=108|quote=It was fabled, that during the seven days before, and as many after, the shortest day of the year, while the bird ἀλκυών, was breeding, there always prevailed calms at sea.|editor=William Smith}}</ref>) during which Alcyone (as a [[kingfisher]]) made her nest on the beach and laid her eggs while her father [[Aeolus]], the god of the winds, helped her do so safely by restraining the winds and thus calming the waves.<ref name="Roman, L. 2010"/> The phrase has since come to refer to any peaceful time.  Its proper meaning, however, is that of a lucky break, or a bright interval set in the midst of adversity; just as the days of calm and mild weather are set in the height of winter for the sake of the kingfishers' egglaying according to the myth. Kingfishers however do not live by the sea, so Ovid's tale is not based on any actual observations of the species and in fact refers to a mythical bird only later identified with the kingfisher.

The expression {{lang|grc|ἀλκῠονίδες ἡμέραι}} ({{grc-transl|ἀλκῠονίδες ἡμέραι}}) first occurs in [[Aristophanes]]' play ''The Birds'' 1594, then again in [[Aristotle]], [[Philochorus]], and [[Lucian]].<ref>Liddell, Scott, Jones, ''Greek Lexicon'', s.v. {{lang|grc|ἀλκῠονίς}}.</ref> In Latin it occurs as {{lang|la|alcyonides dies}} in [[Pliny the Elder]], {{lang|la|alcyonei}} (''-nĭī'') {{lang|la|diēs}} in [[Columella]] and [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], {{lang|la|alcyonia}} in [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], and {{lang|la|alcedonia}} in [[Plautus]] and [[Frontinus]].<ref>Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary''.</ref>