A wintry queen; her sire at length is kind,
Calms every storm, and hushes every wind.

_Ovid, by Dryden._

It is also said, that during the period of her incubation, she herself
had absolute sway over the seas and the winds:

May halcyons smooth the waves, and calm the seas,
And the rough south-east sink into a breeze;
Halcyons of all the birds that haunt the main,
Most lov'd and honour'd by the Nereid train.

_Theocritus, by Fawkes._


Alcyone, or Halcyone, we are informed, was the daughter of Aeolus (king
of storms and winds), and married to Ceyx, who was drowned in going to
consult an oracle. The gods, it is said, apprized Alcyone, in a dream,
of her husband's fate; and when she discovered, on the morrow, his body
washed on shore, she precipitated herself into the watery element, and
was, with her husband, metamorphosed into birds of a similar name, who,
as before observed, keep the waters serene, while they build and sit on
their nests.

_Romford._

H.B.A.

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