Alcyone and Ceyx

In Greek mythology, Alcyone (/ælˈsaɪəˌni/; Ancient Greek: Ἀλκυόνη, Alkyónē) and Ceyx (/ˈsiːɪks/; Κήϋξ, Kḗÿx) were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of Zeus for their romantic hubris.

Alcyone was a Thessalian princess, daughter of King Aeolus of Aeolia, either by Enarete or Aegiale. She was sister to Salmoneus, Athamas, Sisyphus, Cretheus, Perieres, Deioneus, Magnes, Calyce, Canace, Pisidice and Perimede.

She became queen of Trachis after marrying King Ceyx, son of Eosphorus (often translated as Lucifer). The couple lived happily together in Trachis.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, they sacrilegiously called each other "Zeus" and "Hera," angering Zeus. While Ceyx was at sea (consulting an oracle, according to Ovid), Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt. The god of dreams, Morpheus, appeared to Alcyone disguised as Ceyx to reveal his fate. In her grief, she threw herself into the sea. The gods, out of compassion, transformed them both into "halcyon birds" (common kingfishers), named after her. Apollodorus claims Ceyx was changed into a gannet, not a kingfisher.

Ovid and Hyginus recount their metamorphosis differently, omitting the couple's impious name-calling as the cause of Zeus's anger. Instead, they mention that Alcyone continued praying at Hera's altar for Ceyx's safe return while unaware of his death. Ovid adds that she saw his body washed ashore before attempting suicide. According to the scholiast Pseudo-Probus, Ovid followed Nicander's version rather than Theodorus's account featuring another Alcyone.

Virgil in the Georgics alludes to the myth without referencing Zeus's anger.

The original myth may have been simpler, featuring a woman named Alcyone mourning an unnamed husband. Ceyx was likely added later as he was an important mythological figure who also had a wife named Alcyone (as evidenced in the Hesiodic poem Wedding of Ceyx).