The butterfly genus
Cycnus is now synonymized with
Panthiades.
In Greek mythology, several characters were known as Cycnus (Ancient Greek: Κύκνος) or Cygnus. The literal meaning of the name is "swan", and accordingly most of them ended up being transformed into swans.
- Cycnus, son of Ares.[1]
- Cycnus, king of Kolonai.[2] Son of Poseidon.
- Cycnus, friend of Phaethon.[3]
- Cycnus, son of Apollo.[4]
- Cycnus, son of King Ederion (Ancient Greek: Ἐδερίων) or Eredion of Achaea, who, in the 6th century CE account of John Malalas, seduced Leda and made her mother of triplets: the Dioscuri and Helen.[5] In all other sources, she had these children by Zeus who approached her in the shape of a swan (kyknos). For more information, see Leda and the Swan.
According to Pseudo-Eratosthenes and Hyginus' Poetical Astronomy, the constellation Cygnus was the stellar image of the swan Zeus had transformed into in order to seduce Leda[9] or Nemesis.[10]
- ^ Pausanias, 1.27.6
- ^ Strabo, 13.1.19
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.367 sqq.
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 12
- ^ Malalas, 82.17; Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 88–89
- ^ Apollodorus, E.7.26–27
- ^ Apollodorus, E.7.33
- ^ Fabulae 97
- ^ Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 25
- ^ Hyginus, De astronomia 2.8.1