Halcyon is a short dialogue in which Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

 relates the ancient myth of the Halcyon

Alcyone

In Greek mythology, Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, either by Enarete or Aegiale. She married Ceyx, son of Eosphorus, the Morning Star....

 (a woman transformed into a bird forever searching the seas in lament) to Chaerephon

Chaerephon

Chaerephon , of the Athenian deme Sphettus, was a loyal friend and follower of Socrates. He is known only through brief descriptions by classical writers and was "an unusual man by all accounts", though a man of loyal democratic values.-Life:...

. It has the distinction of being attributed in the manuscripts to both Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

 and Lucian

Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....

, but the work is not by either writer. It was known to Favorinus

Favorinus

Favorinus of Arelata was a Roman sophist and philosopher who flourished during the reign of Hadrian.He was of Gaulish ancestry, born in Arelate . He is described as a hermaphrodite by birth...

, in the early 2nd century, who attributes it to a certain Leon. It is rarely found in modern collections of the works of Plato, although it is often still included among the (spurious) works of Lucian.