1
Chairephon What is the cry, Sokrates, that comes to us from the distant breakers on the headland yonder? How sweet it sounds! What creature has such a note as that? Surely the water-fowl are voiceless.
1
Sokrates Nay, it is a sea-bird, Chairephon, called the halcyon, full of plaints and tears, and a legend about her has long been current among men. They say that she was once a woman, the daughter of Aiolos, son of Hellen, and married to Ceyx the Trachinian, who was the son of the Morning-star, fair son of a fair father. And when her young husband died she mourned for him, longing for his love. Then by some god's will (they say) she took on the feathery guise of a bird, and flits about the seas seeking him; for she could not find him on the land, though she searched the world over.
2
Chairephon Is this, then, the halcyon? I had never heard the note before, and it fell upon my ear like something quite new. Certainly the How large a creature sings a mournful song. bird may it be, Sokrates?
2
Sokrates Small, and yet her wifely love won great honor from the gods; for in the nestingtime of these birds the world observes the "halcyon days," as they are called, which bring an interval of fine weather in midwinter. To-day is a perfect example of them. Do you not see how clear the air is? and the expanse of sea, how waveless and calm! Like a mirror, one might say.
