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The most familiar European swan, the mute swan ( Cygnus olor), although not actually mute, is known neither for musicality nor to vocalize as it dies. (The name Cycnus is the Latinised form of the Greek, which means "swan".) Hyginus proposes in his Fabulae that the mournful Cycnus, who is transformed into a swan by the gods, joins the dirge of the amber-crying poplars, the Heliades, the half-sisters of the dead Phaethon, who also experienced a metamorphosis at the death of the reckless Phaethon. It is also possible that the swan song has some connection to the lament of Cycnus of Liguria at the death of his lover, Phaethon, the ambitious and headstrong son of Helios and Clymene. In tears she poured out words with a faint voice,
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Ovid mentions the legend in "The Story of Picus and Canens": By the third century BC the belief had become a proverb. Aristotle noted in his History of Animals that swans "are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death". He adds that there is a popular belief that the swans' song is sorrowful, but Socrates prefers to think that they sing for joy, having "foreknowledge of the blessings in the other world". In Plato's Phaedo, the character of Socrates says that, although swans sing in early life, they do not do so as beautifully as before they die. In that play, Clytemnestra compares the dead Cassandra to a swan who has "sung her last lament". There is a subsequent reference in Aeschylus' Agamemnon from 458 BCE. In Greek mythology, the swan was a bird consecrated to Apollo, and it was therefore considered a symbol of harmony and beauty and its limited capabilities as a singer were sublimated to those of songbirds.Īesop's fable of " The Swan and the Goose" incorporates the swan song legend as saving its life when it was caught by mistake instead of the goose but was recognized by its song.