Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/583

 religion from foreign sources. The swan was with the Greeks the bird of the Muses, and therefore also of Apollo. When the golden-haired deity was born, swans came from the golden stream of Pactolus, and seven times wheeled about Delos, uttering songs of joy. “Seven times, on snowy pinions, circle round The Delian shores, and skim along the ground: The vocal birds, the favourites of the Nine, In strains melodious hail the birth divine. Oft as they carol on resounding wings, To soothe Latona’s pangs, as many strings Apollo fitted to the warbling lyre In aftertimes; but ere the sacred choir Of circling swans another concert sung, In melting notes, the power immortal sprung To glorious birth .” A picture, this, of the white cloudlets fleeting around the rising sun.

The Muses were originally nymphs, and are the representatives of the Indian Apsaras; and it is on this account that the swans are their symbols. Beyond the Eridanus, in the land of the Lygii (Λιγυες, i.e. the clear-ringing), lived once a songful (μουσικός) king. Him Apollo transformed into a swan. “Cycnus having left his kingdom, accompanied