Swans

For he was so beloved of the gods that, sailing up hither with great wealth which he had earned about Tarentum and the Greeks there, when he was about to be thrown into the sea by the sailors on account, doubtless, of this very wealth, he begged them before the throwing to let him sing — just as they say the swans, when about to die and foreseeing death, embark their soul as it were upon the song as upon a chariot.

Or swans turn black from seed of black, or be

Of any single varied dye thou wilt.

Even as the swan's slight note is better far

Just as a wise swan drinks the milk poured into water [leaving the water behind], so the wise one, having enjoyed sense-objects ({{term:

The swan does not wrench up even one foothold as it flies up from the water.

since Ourania on her lovely throne has sent me from Pieria a golden freighter loaded with glorious songs by the flowery Hebrus he takes delight in, or in a long-necked swan delighting his mind you come to seek the flowers of paeans,

And so he relates that, just as swans — who are dedicated to Apollo not without cause, but because they seem to have from him a power of divination, by which, foreseeing what good there is in death, they die with song and pleasure — so all good and learned men ought to do.

I, wingless bird that I am, compare my laments with yours, in my longing for the festivals of Hellas, and for Artemis of childbirth, who dwells beside the Cynthian mountain and the palm with delicate leaves and the well-grown laurel and the holy shoot of gray-green olive, Leto’s dear child, and the lake that rolls about its ripples, where the melodious swan serves the Muses.

But men, because of their own fear of death, misrepresent the swans and say that they sing for sorrow, in mourning for their own death.

but since they are Apollo’s birds, I believe they have prophetic vision, and because they have foreknowledge of the blessings in the other world they sing and rejoice on that day more than ever before.

And you seem to think I am inferior in prophetic power to the swans who sing at other times also, but when they feel that they are to die, sing most and best in their joy that they are to go to the god whose servants they are.

A flock of twelve, whose gayly fluttering file, erst scattered by Jove's eagle swooping down from his ethereal haunt, now form anew their long-drawn line, and make a landing-place, or, hovering over, scan some chosen ground, or soaring high, with whir of happy wings, re-circle heaven in triumphant song:

Look up at yonder swans!