Wedding of Ceyx
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The Wedding of Ceyx is a fragmentary Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 hexameter
Dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry...

 poem that was attributed to Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

 during antiquity. The fragments that survive imply that the subject of the poem was not simply the wedding of a certain Ceyx
Ceyx
Ceyx may be:*In Greek mythology:**Ceyx, son of Eosphorus, husband to Alcyone. After whom is named:***Ceyx , son of Lucifer and the goddess Diana***Ceyx , a genus of kingfisher...

, but Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

' arrival at, and involvement in, the festivities. For this reason Merkelbach and West
Martin Litchfield West
Martin Litchfield West is an internationally recognised scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology...

 suppose that the poem should be regarded "as a member of that group of epics and epyllia that dealt with exploits of Heracles, like the Aspis and the Capture of Oechalia
Capture of Oechalia
The Capture of Oechalia was an epic segment of the ancient Greek Epic Cycle that has not survived; it was variously attributed in Antiquity to either Homer or Creophylus of Samos; a tradition was reported that Homer gave the tale to Creophylus, in gratitude for guest-friendship , and that he wrote...

." The identity of the Ceyx whose marriage was the central scene of the poem has been a matter of dispute. Merkelbach and West initially identified him with the ill-fated groom of the similarly ill-fated Alcyone
Alcyone
In Greek mythology, Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, either by Enarete or Aegiale. She married Ceyx, son of Eosphorus, the Morning Star....

: they were turned into birds for the hubris they showed in referring to one another as "Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

" and "Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...

". Given the poem's apparent focus upon Heracles, however, it is more likely that this Ceyx was actually the king of Trachis
Trachis
Trachis was a region in ancient Greece. Situated south of the river Spercheios, it was populated by the Malians.Its main town was also called Trachis until 426 BC, when it became Heraclea Trachinia. It is located to the west of Thermopylae. Trachis is located just west of the western-most tip of...

 who was a nephew of Amphitryon
Amphitryon
Amphitryon , in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in Argolis.Amphitryon was a Theban general, who was originally from Tiryns in the eastern part of the Peloponnese. He was friends with Panopeus....

, the great hero's stepfather.

The poem appears to have been popular for the witticisms and riddles uttered at the banquet. One famous riddle is preserved, although incompletely so, by a papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....

scrap and ancient quotations:


          


then when they had put away their desire for equal banquet
     ] mother's mother [     ] they led [to the childen,

dry and roasted to their own children
to die [


According to West, the "children" here are the flames whose mother would be wood. The "mother's mother" is the acorn, which is being roasted in the fire.
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