Halcyon: English, 13th century

From the Latin Alcyone

From the archaic Greek, Ἀλκυόνη (Alkuónē)

Denoting the daughter of King Aeolus

(of Odysseus and the bag of winds fame)

Who, when her husband died in shipwreck

Threw herself into the sea

–

Hereupon the gods transformed them both into birds

Ever after known as Halcyons

And so her father restrained his winds

and kept them calm for seven days

Once a year

so she could lay her eggs.

These became known as the “halcyon days”

when storms do not occur.

–

Now used to denote a past period

remembered as happy

And brief

–

Like Summer when you’re a child

Or childhood when you’re older.

Or Eden if you’re religious

Or even if you’re not.

–

As a time that perhaps never existed

A myth, after all

Or is it we can only remember it as myth now?