Ceyx and Alcyone
Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/010-ceyx-alcyone-ovid-roman
Cycle: Local and lesser — Trachinian / Aeolian metamorphosis
Version line: Roman transmission (Ovid) of a Greek pair; Apollodorean brief notice of Ceyx
Sources: Ovid, *Metamorphoses* 11.410–748 (**Roman transmission** — primary continuous narrative); Apollodorus, *Library* 1.7.3–4 (Ceyx son of Eosphorus; marriage into Aeolian stemma; death notices thinner); Pseudo-Lucian and scholia on the halcyon days
Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/010-ceyx-alcyone-ovid-roman.md
Characters
- Aeolus — father of Alcyone; stills winds for the nesting days
- Ares — divine machinery of the dream (Ovid)
- Ceyx — king of Trachis; son of Eosphorus; drowned; becomes male halcyon
- Cleopatra — daughter of Aeolus; wife; becomes female halcyon
- Eosphorus — father of Ceyx
- Morpheus — dream-form of Ceyx (Ovid)
Places
Themes
Narrative
Ceyx, son of the Morning Star (Eosphorus/Heosphoros), ruled at Trachis and married Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus. In Ovid’s continuous telling, Ceyx resolves to consult the oracle at Claros by sea despite Alcyone’s pleas—she fears the winds her father rules. A storm wrecks his ship; he drowns calling Alcyone’s name. Hera (Juno) sends Iris to Somnus; a dream-shape of Ceyx appears to Alcyone. She wakes, goes to the shore, finds his body, and in grief both are changed into halcyon birds (*alkuones*).
Thereafter, while they nest on the sea, Aeolus stills the winds for seven (or fourteen) days—the “halcyon days” of winter calm—etiology of the proverbial fair weather. Apollodorus knows Ceyx in the Aeolian genealogy and links him to Trachis without Ovid’s long storm and dream sequence. Because that sequence is Roman narrative art built on Greek names and the halcyon bird lore, this entry is labeled **Roman transmission**.