Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Cycnus.
The gallery
Phaethon's Sisters Become Poplars and His Friend a Swan
Unknown (Ovid Metamorphoses series), 17th–18th century
Rijksmuseum Ovid print: beside the Heliades turning to poplars, Phaethon's friend becomes a swan — Cycnus of Liguria, Ovid's mourner who shuns the sky that killed his companion.
The Sisters of Phaethon Transformed into Poplars
Unknown, 17th–18th century
French print of the Eridanus mourning: the bank where Cycnus weeps among the new poplars before Phoebus remakes him as a swan — not Cycnus the warrior son of Ares, nor every mute swan of the genus.
In play
Metamorphoses
Ovid
Book 2: Cycnus son of Sthenelus leaves his Ligurian throne to mourn Phaethon and is changed into a swan that prefers water to Jupiter's fire.
Cycnus (son of Sthenelus)
King of Liguria, Phaethon's kinsman and mourner — distinct from other mythic Cycni (Ares' son, Poseidon's son, etc.).
Phaethon
The sun-chariot crash Cycnus mourns — the friend whose fall turns a Ligurian king into a swan.