Halcyon Days: Spring Appears in the Middle of Winter in Greece

Halcyon Days successful Athens. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

With temperatures rising to the precocious teens successful galore parts of the state this week, Greece is amid the unsocial improvement known arsenic the Halcyon Days, oregon Alkyonides Days, allowing for a consciousness of outpouring amid winter.

Temperatures reached and successful immoderate areas exceeded 68° Fahrenheit (20° Celsius). The precocious temperatures for the play prompted galore winter swimmers to spell to beaches for a swim. Meteorologists accidental the lukewarm spell successful Greece volition past astatine slightest until adjacent weekend.

The phrase, translated into “Halcyon days” successful English, has a literal meaning of calm, peaceful days. It is the translation of “Alkyonides Meres” successful Greek.

The Alkyonides Days whitethorn instrumentality spot from astir December 15th to February 15th each year. During this time, the days are typically sunny with wide skies and nary wind, deviating from the norm of little temperatures.

During Alkyionides Days amid wintertime temperatures that ascent up to implicit 68° Fahrenheit are emblematic for astir a week.

Where does the sanction Halcyon Days travel from?

Alkyonides Days are named aft the vertebrate Alcyone (halcyon), which lays its eggs during this clip of twelvemonth successful the cracks of seaside rocks. The allegorical meaning is of the homonymous prima called “Alcyone” successful the Pleiades constellation.

During this period, the prima Alcyone culminates its orbit during the evening hours and during the cloudless nights successful January, the prima is disposable successful the clump of the Pleiades, located successful the highest portion of the celestial dome.

As a effect of this elemental earthy event, each the consecutive days that the Alcyone prima is disposable were named ‘Alkyonides.’

From a meteorological constituent of view, Alkyonides Days travel astir arsenic a effect of the operation of the latitude of Greece, heightened barometric unit during this clip of year, a deficiency of wind, chill temperatures, and aggravated sunshine.

The myth

There are respective myths surrounding the improvement of the Alkyonides Days, the astir communal of which is the communicative of Alcyone, girl of Aeolus, the Greek deity of the wind.

Alcyone was the devoted woman of Ceyx, King of Thessaly successful cardinal Greece. Ceyx ruled his kingdom with justness and successful peace. Alcyone and Ceyx were admired by gods and mortals alike for their carnal quality and profound emotion for each other.

Zeus punished the arrogant mates who dared to comparison themselves to gods by plunging Ceyx’s vessel into the oversea and drowning him. Alcyone lamented her nonaccomplishment truthful overmuch truthful that she past threw herself into the oversea and drowned, determined to articulation her hubby successful the onshore of the dead.

The gods of Olympus were truthful profoundly affected by the tragic destiny of the mates and their abiding emotion for 1 different that Zeus transformed the mates into halcyon birds. Yet the birds were inactive condemned to springiness commencement successful the wintertime each year.

After the waves of the oversea crashed into the rocks and destroyed Alcyone’s nest and eggs, Zeus erstwhile again felt regretful and ordered the winds to halt and the prima to radiance for 15 days successful the bosom of the wintertime truthful that Alcyone could safely laic her eggs.