Cycnus Versus Cygnus

[David Amicus]

In the Metamorphoses there are three people named Cyncus that are turned into swans.

What's the difference between Cyncus and Cygnus?

[Patricio]

On Friday, March 24, 2017 at 11:07:35 PM UTC-4, David Amicus wrote:
> In the Metamorphoses there are three people named Cyncus that are turned into swans.
>
> What's the difference between Cyncus and Cygnus?

I’m assuming you mean Cycnus.

Since there’s often an underlying similarity between the person and the thing they get turned into in the Metamorphoses, is it significant that two of the three Cycni who are transformed into swans are homosexual?

In the first case, Phaethon’s maternal uncle, Ovid doesn’t make this very clear. He just says, somewhat disapprovingly:

Adfuit huic monstro proles Stheneleia Cycnus,
qui tibi materno quamvis a sanguine iunctus,
mente tamen, Phaethon, propior fuit. (2.367-379)

“Cycnus, although related to you through your mother’s blood, Phaethon, was closer to you in thought.”

But Vergil is more explicit in the Aeneid.

Namque ferunt luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati,
populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum
dum canit et maestum Musa solatur amorem,
canentem molli pluma duxisse senectam
linquentem terras et sidera voce sequentem. (10.189-193)

“. . . grief for his beloved Phaethon . . . consoles his sorrowful love with song . . . “

Ovid’s second Cycnus, Hyrie’s son who throws himself off a cliff in a ridiculous fit of pique (7.371-381), is obviously gay.

But perhaps there’s nothing at all to any of this because the third Cycnus (12.64-145), whom Achilles strangles with the strap of his own helmet, isn’t gay at all. Well, maybe he is, who knows, but he doesn’t set off my gaydar.


--Patricio

[Ed Cryer]

David Amicus wrote:
> In the Metamorphoses there are three people named Cyncus that are turned into swans.
>
> What's the difference between Cyncus and Cygnus?
>

It's simply Latinised from the Greek κύκνος.
Try pronouncing it a few times and you'll find a tendency to harden the
second C.

Ed

[David Amicus]

Right. Cycnus. I corrected the thread title but not the post content. Cycnus sounds to me like "sickness" in English. ;-)))

[John W Kennedy]

On 3/24/17 11:07 PM, David Amicus wrote:
> In the Metamorphoses there are three people named Cyncus that are turned into swans.
>
> What's the difference between Cyncus and Cygnus?

According to Lewis and Short, “cygnus” is merely a variant spelling of
“cycnus”, signifying no more than “Caius” -> “Gaius”.

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

[David Amicus]

Thanks!

I was thinking maybe Cycnus is the name while Cygnus refers to the bird.

Jove when he seduced Leda he was Cygnus not Cycnus.

[Will Parsons]

John W Kennedy wrote:
> On 3/24/17 11:07 PM, David Amicus wrote:
>> In the Metamorphoses there are three people named Cyncus that are turned into swans.
>>
>> What's the difference between Cyncus and Cygnus?
>
> According to Lewis and Short, “cygnus” is merely a variant spelling of
> “cycnus”, signifying no more than “Caius” -> “Gaius”.

I don't think the two cases are parallel. The name "Gaius" was always
pronounced [gaius]; the spelling with a C is an archaism dating back to when
C was used for both [k] and [g]. The spelling "cygnus", though, reprsents a
real development in pronunciation - the spelling "cycnus" represents
[kyknus], very close to the original Greek κύκνος [kyknos], but since the
sequence [kn] is atypical in Latin, the [k] partially assimilated to the
following [n], producing [kyŋnos], spelt "cygnus".

(For those who may not be familiar with the IPA, [y] = French <u>,
and [ŋ] = Eng. <ng>.)