Visits

To King Ceyx in Trachis came the exiled Peleus, who had been expelled from Aegina by his father Aeacus after the death of his brother Phocus ₃ (see also Psamathe ₁ at NEREIDS). At this time, Ceyx was still mourning his brother Daedalion, who was turned by Apollo into a hawk. This Daedalion was known for harshness, eagerness of war, and readiness for violence. However, when his daughter Chione ₂ (or perhaps Philonis) died, he could not find consolation, and kept ever bewailing his lost child. So finally, out of grief, he hurled himself from Mount Parnassus' top, and while he fell was turned into a bird. Also Heracles ₁ came to Trachis, when after having accidentally killed the boy Eunomus ₁, son of Architeles ₂, he wished, in accordance with the law, to suffer the penalty of exile. It was in his way to Trachis that Heracles ₁ felt compelled to shoot the Centaur Nessus ₂, when he tried to violate Heracles ₁'s wife Deianira ₁ while ferrying her across the river Evenus. Having arrived to Trachis, Heracles ₁, assisted by the Arcadians who accompanied him in his campaigns, conquered the Dryopians, a people living between the Sperchius River and Mount Parnasus, and killed their king Laogoras. After several wars, Heracles ₁ died in Trachinian territory. But his sons, fleeing from Heracles ₁'s tormentor Eurystheus, who had decided to banish the HERACLIDES from the whole of Hellas, for he considered them a threat to his throne in Mycenae, were received by Ceyx for some time. But as Eurystheus demanded their surrender threatening war, they had to left Trachis and take refuge elsewhere. It is told that Ceyx sent them to Athens, arguing that he was weak but King Theseus was strong enough to help them and oppose Eurystheus.

Fate of Ceyx

King Ceyx perished in a shipwreck when he was journeying to the oracle at Delphi. He traveled there, they say, on account of the strange things that happened to his brother Daedalion, and also because of other events that had taken place since his brother's death. As the journey by land was unsafe because of the robbers in the region, he decided to sail. Alcyone ₂, who feared the sea and loved her husband, tried to persuade him to stay, or at least to let her go with him. But Ceyx was unwilling either to give up his journey, or to take his wife with him. So when he launched his boat, she wept without consolation and fainted. Alcyone ₂'s fears and forewarnings proved to be true, for the vessel was shipwrecked, and Ceyx drowned while praying that the waves may bear his body into his wife's sight. During his absence, Alcyone ₂ kept herself praying to Hera for the safety of her husband, who was already dead. So Hera sent Iris ₁, the messenger of the gods, to Hypnos to ask him send to Alcyone ₂ a vision in the shape of Ceyx to tell her the truth about his death. So Hypnos sent his son Morpheus, who imitates the human form, and he, taking the face and form of Ceyx, stood naked before Alcyone ₂'s bed and told her the truth.

Halcyon days

Alcyone ₂ then went to the beach and there, having found her dead husband, teared her cheeks, hair, and garments, and leaped into the sea. But all of a sudden she was turned into the bird called halcyon, and her husband Ceyx came to life again transformed into the same bird. And so, they say, their love remained, and they bred on a floating nest when the waves of the sea are still for seven days in the winter. And that is why, the sea being calm in those days, the sailors call them "halcyon days", which proverbially have come to be regarded as days of peace and happiness.