Phaethon's three sisters, the Heliades, wept so bitterly on the banks of the Eridanus that the compassionate gods changed them into poplar trees and their tears into amber. Ovid pictures their terrible grief—
Cycnus, Phaethon's friend, also grieved deeply and watched over the waters for many days. While watching thus his neck grew longer and longer until at last it became perfectly atrocious. The gods again looked down in pity, metamorphosed the youth into a swan and placed him on the river of the Milky Way.
And sung his loss in poplar groves alone,
Beneath the sister shades to soothe his grief,
Heaven heard his song and hastened his relief.
And changed to snowy plumes his hoary hair,
And winged his flight to sing aloft in air."
—Virgil.
If this swan is really Cycnus it seems strange that he was not depicted as flying down the wavy line of Eridanus' stars instead of being placed over the silvery stream of the Milky Way, for the river Eridanus, into which Phaethon had fallen, was placed in the winter sky at the foot of Orion. This was supposed to console Apollo for the loss of his son. Perhaps the Swan is Orpheus, as some mythologists claim, carried up to the constellations to be near his well-loved harp. However, no matter which 'human' this long-necked bird is supposed to represent, we see its gigantic, graceful outlines sketched with star-like lightness beyond the stars of the Cross, and we see his snow-white wings extended and the orange light of Albireo shining on his beak, as he flies softly, head downward, along the misty river of stars.
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