Category: Swan Lore

In India swans appear both as the hamsa and as apsaras.

Brahma’s consort Saraswati, goddess of wisdom, learning, and music, is also depicted riding on a swan (hamsa), as is Varuna, god of the sky and rain.

The Hamsa

In Hindu lore, the hamsa (a pair of divine birds) can be either swans or geese. The two are interchangeable. The word hamsa is a cognate of the Latin anser (goose).

The hamsa lives on Lake Manasarovar in Tibet, from which it migrates to India in the winter. It is extolled as the king of birds, and said to eat pearls and be able to separate milk from water when the two are mixed. It trancends creation, because it can fly in the sky, swim in the water, and walk on the earth. The hamsa represents perfect union, balance and life (breath and spirit).

In Vedic times, the hamsa was connected with Surya, the sun god. Iit signified strength and virility. In the Upanishads, the hamsa acquired more attributes, symbolizing purity, detachment, divine knowledge, prana (cosmic breath) and spiritual accomplishment.

The hamsa laid a golden egg on the waters. (This is the same role taken by the goose in ancient Egypt.) From that egg sprang the god Brahma, the Creator. In the Upanishads, the hamsa is said to possess the sacred knowledge of Brahma. Therefore, it symbolizes the elevation of the unformed toward the Heaven of Knowledge. Brahma is often depicted riding on the hamsa.

The hamsa is also used as a symbol of Narayana, an aspect of Vishnu, the Preserver. In this context, the hamsa is a personification of the soul in the universe. The flight of the hamsa symbolizes the escape from the cycle of samsara, rebirth.

The hamsa is also identified with Shiva, the Destroyer. Cambodian literature identifies Shiva both with Kalahamsa (who haunts the yogis’ lake of the heart) and with the hamsa (which dwells in the binou). Here, the hamsa symbolizes the atman, the universal self.

A constant repetition of the word “hamso” changes it to “soaham”, which means “That I am”. Therefore, the hamsa is identified with Brahman, the supreme spirit. When inverted, ham-sa reads sa-ham, which in Sanskrit means “the oneness of the human and divine”. During pranayama, a form of breath control in yoga, inhalation is said to sound like ham, and exhalation is said to sound like sa. So, hamsa symbolizes the prana, the breath of life.

In the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, an Adavaitan lives in the world of maya, unsoiled by its illusion, just as a swan lives on water without getting its feathers wet.

The hamsa is carved on temples to symbolize the perfect union to which celestial beings aspire. Reliquaries in the shape of hamsa were used to hold the ashes of deceased persons.

The title paramhamsa (supreme hamsa) is prefixed to the names of saints and holy people, symbolizing that the person has reached a high level of spirituality and emancipation.

The Apsaras

The apsaras of Hindu and Buddhist lore are female spirits, often represented in the form of swans. The ancient Indians pictured the sky as a heavenly lake, with the clouds as female spirits in the form of swans bathing in that lake. They are said to be able to change their shapes at will. [Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868]The apsaras are the handmaidens of Indra, the Lord of Heaven. They dance before his throne. As patrons of the performing arts, the apsaras are analogs of the Muses of Greek mythology. Some of them are wives of thegandharvas, the nature spirits who are servants of Indra. One of their duties is to guide heroes who fall in battle to paradise, where they become their wives, a role similar to the Muslim houris and the Norse valkyries.Apsaras may be either daivika (divine) or laukika (worldly). The worldly asparas often lure men to their deaths. They sometimes descend to earth, becoming the wives of mortal men. Eventually, however, they return to their celestial home. [Baring-Gould.]Nicayadatta, a mortal, caught one of these celestial maidens, then lost her. Deeply in love, he pursued her to the golden city that was her true home.

Sridatta, another mortal, saw an apsara bathing in the Ganges. He plunged in after her, and found himself in a wondrous land beneath the water, in the company of his beloved.

The Siddhi-Kur tells the story of a woman who had three daughters. The girls took turns keeping the cattle. The eldest was taking her turn when she lost an ox. She went in search of it. She came to a cave, which she entered, finding a beautiful lake surrounded by flowers, on which was swimming a silver swan. She asked for her ox. The swan told her she could have it back if she would become his wife. She refused, and returned to her mother. The next day the second sister also lost an ox. She traced it to the cave, asked the swan to return it, refused to become his wife, and also returned to her mother. On the third day, the youngest daughter also lost an ox. Tracing it to the cave, she agreed to become the swan’s wife, and got back all three oxen. [Baring-Gould.]

The word swan has descended unchanged from the Old Saxon word swan or suan. The Old English and Middle English forms were also swan. The Old Saxon form derived from the proto-Germanic *swanaz. The Old High German forms were swan, swan(a) and swon, the Old Norse form was svanr, and the Middle Dutch form was swane.

The English word is cognate with the Danish svane, Dutch zwaan, German schwan, Icelandic svanr and Swedish svan.

These words all derive from the Indo-European root *swen or *swon (to sound, to sing).

The Latin word sonus (sound) and the Sanskrit word svan (to sound, to sing) have the same root.

The Classical Greek κυκνωσ (kuknōs) has a different etymology. From it derives the Latin cygnus, whence the French cygne, Italian cigno, Portuguese cisne, Spanish cisne, and similar forms in other Romance languages. The Hebrew ספרותי and Russian лебедь also have different origins.

The term “swan song“, first attested in 1831, is a translation of the German Schwanengesang. A black swan was proverbial for “something extremely rare or non-existent” (1398), after Juvenal (Satires 6:164). The term “swan dive” dates from 1898.

One of the medieval courts in England was called a swanimote. It was held to try offenses against vert and venison, that is, against the vegetation and game of the forest. The court also heard grievances against officers of the forest.

In England, a forest was an area set aside as a hunting monopoly. It included woodland, heath, grassland and wetland. The chief administrative officer of a forest was a warden, assisted by verderers (who levied fines), foresters (charged with enforcement of the forest law), and other officials.

The warden (or his steward) and the verderers of a forest held a swanimote three times a year, a fortnight before each of the Feasts of Saint Michael, Saint Martin and Saint John the Baptist.

The swanimote has nothing to do with swans, however. It was so named because local swains (freeholders) were the jurymen. The word swain comes from the Anglo-Saxon swein, a herdsman, shepherd or youth.

Leda and the Swan, by Kotsonis

The swan was a recurring motif in Greek and Roman mythology, generally as a bird associated with the sun. Each Greek tribe had its own favorite myths, and additional stories were being constantly imported into religion from foreign sources.

The swan was the bird of the Muses. It was sacred to Apollo and Aphrodite. Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, mentioned swan maidens. The Greek word for swan is κυκνωσ (kuknōs). The Latin word is cygnus.

Apollo

The swan was sacred to Hyperborean Apollo. Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto, who took the form of quail when she conceived him. He was born on the island of Delos on a seventh day, the Sun’s day. On the day of his birth, swans came from the golden stream of Pactolus, and flew seven times around Delos, uttering songs of joy:

Seven times, on snowy pinions, circle round
The Delian shores, and skim along the ground:
The vocal birds, the favourites of the Nine,
In strains melodious hail the birth divine.
Oft as they carol on resounding wings,
To soothe Latona’s pangs, as many strings
Apollo fitted to the warbling lyre
In aftertimes; but ere the sacred choir
Of circling swans another concert sung,
In melting notes, the power immortal sprung
To glorious birth. A picture, this, of the white cloudlets fleeting around the rising sun.

Zeus presented the infant Apollo with a lyre and a chariot drawn by white horses. The horses carried Apollo to “first to their home on the shores of the ocean beyond the home of the North Wind, where the Hyperboreans lived under a sky which was always clear.”

Another version says that Apollo was born in Hyperborea rather than at Delos. The Classical World identified the Hyperborean paradise with the British Isles, although it must originally have been located in Siberia. Apollo was the god of music, and his lyre was carved with a swan’s neck, head, feet, and feathers. Greek art depicts him riding on the back of a swan or in a chariot drawn by swans when he returned to visit the country of his birth (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths § 161.4). Swans also bear the souls of sacrificial kings to Hyperborea. (Graves, § 161.4). One legend says that the soul of Apollo passed into a swan. Hence, the Pythagoreans believed that the souls of all good poets and musicians passed into the bodies of swans (Brewer’s Book of Myth and Legend).

Aphrodite

Swans were kept and fed as sacred birds on the Eurotas River. They were revered in Sparta as emblems of Aphrodite (the Roman Venus), goddess of love, whose chariot was drawn by swans. The swan acquired sexual connotations by its association with Aphrodite. (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10:15). Some writers suggest that the association arose from a parallel between sexual release and the myth of swans singing a final song before death. In this view, the swan’s song is the passionate outpouring of a lover before release or death.

Zeus

Zeus, the king of the gods, took the form of a swan when he seduced Leda, the daughter of Thestius, King of Aetolia, and wife of the Tyndareus, King of Sparta. One evening, as Leda was bathing in a pool, Zeus saw her and became enamored. He changed himself into a swan, a bird sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. He flew down from Olympus to be with Leda. Leda saw only a magnificent swan of iridescent whiteness. Not knowing the swan was Zeus, she was initially receptive. When she realized who he was, she changed herself into a goose to escape him, but was ultimately seduced. Later that same night, Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus. She became the mother of Pollux and Helen by Zeus, and the mother of Castor and Clytemnestra by her husband. Castor and Pollux became heroes, the Dioscuri, and are represented in the Zodiac as the Twins of Gemini. Helen became Helen of Troy, whose abduction led to the Trojan War.

Some authorities see Leda’s husband Tyndareus as an aspect of Zeus in his role as Thunderer, Leda herself as earth mother, the Dioscuri as the morning and evening stars, and the beautiful Helen as an incarnation of Selene, the moon, “which swims at night as a silver swan upon the deep dark sky-sea.” (Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868)).

In the Cypriot version, Nemesis, goddess of retribution, flying in pursuit of Zeus, took the form of a swan, and dropped an egg, from which Helen hatched.

A late story says Helen united with Achilles on a spirit-isle in northern Pontus, where they were served by flights of white birds. (Baring-Gould).

Cygnus, King of the Ligurians

A musician named Cygnus became King of the Ligurians. On his death, he was changed into a swan by Apollo (Pausanius, Description of Greece 1.30.1).

Cycnus, Son of Poseidon

Cycnus (in Latin, Cionus), King of Colonae, was son of Poseidon and Calyce (or Harpale or Thyna). He was born in secret and exposed on the seashore to die. However, a swan took pity on the baby and flew down to comfort for him. Some fishermen saw the swan and rescued him. As an adult, he became King of Colonae, a city north of Troy. He married first, Procleia, a daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. They had a son Tenes and a daughter Hemithea (however, Tenes claimed Apollo as his father). After his wife’s death, he married Phylonome, daughter of Tragasus. His new wife fell in love her stepson. When she failed to seduce him, she accused him of having tried to violate her. As punishment, Cycnus locked his two children in a chest and set them adrift. They came ashore at Tenedos, where Tene became king. When Cycnus discovered the truth, he had his wife buried alive, then sailed to Tenedos to be reconciled with his children. Tenes angrily refused his father’s overtures and cut the cables of his father’s ship with an ax — hence the expression, “He cut him with an ax from Tenedos.”

Eventually, Tenes was reconciled to his father, who then settled on Tenedos. However, during the Trojan War, Tenes provoked Achilles by hurling a huge rock at the Greek ships from a cliff. Achilles landed and ravaged Tenedos, killing both Cycnus and Tenes. Achilles killed Tenes with a thrust through the heart, and thereby sealed his own eventual doom for killing a son of Apollo. Cycnus he killed with a blow to the head; as Cycnus died, his father Poseidon turned him into a swan. Achilles pursued Hemitha, and would have captured and violated her, but the earth opened and swallowed her. (Pausanius, Description of Greece 10.14.1-3; Apollodorus, Library and Epitome E.3.23-26; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12:3; Graves, The Greek Myths § 161.f – 161.h).

In another version, he was the son of Poseidon by Hyrie. He sprang from a rock and became the bird from which he derives his name. His mother, dissolving into tears, was transformed into a lake whereon the swan now glides. (Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868)).

Another Cygnus was son of Sthenele and a close friend of Phaëthon. Phaëthon was a mortal son of Helios the Sun, who attempted to drive his father’s chariot across the sky. Phaëthon lost control of the chariot, which veered too close to earth. Zeus, the king of the gods, struck down Phaëthon, who plummeted to earth into the river Eridanus. Cygnus was overcome with grief at the death of his friend. The Greeks believed that human remains needed to have a proper resting place, or the spirit would wander the upper world as a ghost and never find peace in the underworld. So, Cygnus dived into the river again and again until he had collected all the bones of his friend. Impressed with Cygnus’ devotion to Phaëthon, Zeus turned him into a swan: “As (Cygnus) mourned, his voice became thin and shrill, and white feathers hid his hair. His neck grew long, stretching out from his breast, his fingers reddened and a membrane joined them together. Wings clothed his sides, and a blunt beak fastened on his mouth. Cygnus became a new kind of bird: but he put no trust in the skies, nor in Zeus, for he remembered how that god had unjustly hurled his flaming bolt. Instead, Cygnus made for marshes and broad lakes, and in his hatred of flames chose to inhabit the rivers, which are the very antithesis of fire.” (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2:374-382).

Cycnus, Son of Ares

Another Cycnus was son of Ares, god of war, by Pelopea (or Pyrene). He lived in southern Thessaly, where he slew pilgrims till Apollo cut off his head, and gave the skull to the temple of Ares. According to another version, he was slain by the hero Herakles. His father Ares was so enraged that he fought with the hero.

The Muses

The swan was the bird of the Muses, the nine patron goddesses of the arts. By Classical times, they were regarded as the daughters Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. (Hesiod, Theogony). The Muses were originally nymphs. They were the Greek version of the Indian Apsaras; which is why the swan is their symbol. Apollo was the patron of the Muses. Their connection with swans might have given rise to his.

Cassiopaeia

A swan was the pet of the Queen Cassiopeia, the wife of Cepheus, King of Ethiopia. Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter Andomeda was more beautiful than than the Nereids, and even more beautiful than Hera herself. The goddesses complained to Poseidon, who sent a sea monster to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. To appease Poseidon, an oracle ordered the sacrifice of Andromeda. However, the hero Perseus killed the monster and saved the girl.

Orpheus

The swan is the symbol of Orpheus, the greatest poet and musician of the Greeks, as well as the founder of the Orphic Mysteries. He was the son of Calliope by either the mortal Oeagrus or the god Apollo. It was said that his music could charm wild beasts and coax rocks and trees into movement. He was one of the Argonauts, traveling in the company of Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece. When they had to pass the Sirens, Orpheus’ music saved the crew from being lured to destruction. Disconsolate by the death of his wife, he traveled to the underworld to beg for her return. Hades agreed to release her on condition that Orpheus conduct her to the surface without looking back. However, just before they reached the surface, Orpheus did look back, and his wife returned to the underworld. Again distraught, Orpheus shunned the company of humans. A group of Ciconian Maenads, devotees of Dionysus, found him one day. They attacked him with rocks and branches, but his music turned away every object they threw. Finally, the Maenads attacked him with their bare hands and tore him to pieces. His head floated down the river, still singing, and came to rest at the island of Lesbos. Zeus, the king of the gods, placed him in the heavens as the constellation Cygnus, to spend eternity by his harp, Lyra.

Socrates

Socrates, in his Phaedo, wrote that swans sing just before their deaths, but do so from joy because they are about to approach the gods:

“They sing before this as well. But when they sense that they are about to die they sing quite frequently and most beautifully. They rejoice because they are about to approach the Gods whose servants they are. Men, however, in their fear of death relate false tales about swans. They say that it is in pain and mourning that swans sing about their deaths. They do not consider that birds do not sing when they are hungry or cold or suffering from some other misery, not even the nightingale or swallow or hoopoe. But they say that the birds sing to bemoan their sadness. But I do not believe that they sing in pain, nor do I believe the lies about the swans. They are Apollo’s birds; they see the future and know therefore all the good which awaits us in death, so they sense on that day a blissfulness greater than ever before. And I consider myself like the swans to be in the service of the same master. I, too, am the holy property of God.”

Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana was a neo-Pythagorean philosopher-sage, physician and wonder-worker in the 1st century CE. He was born into a wealthy family at Tyana, in what is now Turkey. According to legend, his mother was sleeping in a meadow when wild swans landed near her. They woke her with their cries and the beating of their wings. She then gave birth immediately and prematurely to Apollonius. Apollonius traveled widely in Italy, Greece, Spain, Africa, Asia Minor, Persia and India. He wrote numerous philosophical books. He was accused of treason by the Emperors Nero and Domitian, but was greatly admired by the later Emperors Hadrian, Severus and Marcus Aurelius. (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius). He has been generally condemned by Christians because of the similarities of his life to that of Christ. Some historians have speculated that he might have been identical with the Apostle Paul.

Germanic swan myths, preserved in fairy tales, are similar to those of the Norse and Celtic. In many stories women who take the shape of swans can be prevented from doing so if their plumage is taken. In other household tales a wicked step-mother throws white skirts over her step-children, and they are at once transformed into swans.

A German Nobleman

A nobleman was hunting in a forest, when he emerged upon a lake in which bathed an exquisitely beautiful maiden. He stole up to her, and took from her the gold necklace she wore; then she lost her power to fly, and she became his wife. At one birth she bore seven sons, who had all of them gold chains round their necks, and had the power, which their mother had possessed, of transforming themselves into swans at pleasure. [Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868).]

A Hessian Forester

A Hessian forester saw a beautiful swan floating on a lonely lake. Charmed with its beauty, he prepared to shoot it, when it exclaimed, “Shoot not, or it will cost you your life!” As he persisted in taking aim, the swan was suddenly transformed into a lovely girl, who swam towards him, and told him that she was bewitched, but could be freed if he would say an “Our Father” every Sunday for her during a twelvemonth, and not allude to what he had seen in conversation with his friends. He promised, but failed to keep silence, and lost her. [Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868).]

Southern Germany

A hunter in Southern Germany lost his wife, and was in deep affliction. He went to a hermit and asked his advice; the aged man advised him to seek a lonely pool, and wait there till he saw three swans alight and despoil themselves of their feathers, then he was to steal one of the dresses, and never return it, but take the maiden whose was the vesture of plumes to be his wife. This the huntsman did, and he lived happily with the beautiful damsel for 15 years. But one day he forgot to lock the cupboard in which he kept the feather-dress; the wife discovered it, put it on, spread her wings, and never returned. [Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1866-1868).]

The Woodcutter and the Swan Maiden

There was a woodcutter who lived in the heart of the Black Forest, in what is now Germany. He was lonely, so he decided to consult a witch. He took many presents to the witch — a golden bracelet carved with ancient runes, silver necklaces, and jars of the finest mead — but the only gift she would accept was the figure of a swan he had carved from a piece of ivory.

The witch prepared her spell, then told the Woodcutter to go to a certain pond, where he would find a woman preparing to bathe there. The Woodcutter would see a swan land near the pond. The swan would take off her cloak of feathers and become a beautiful woman. The Woodcutter should then take the cloak and keep it. If the Woodcutter did this, the woman would stay with him for the rest of his life. But, if he let the woman have her cloak back, she would put it on, become a swan, and fly away and never return.

The Woodcutter did what the witch told him to do. The woman followed the Woodcutter home and became his wife. They lived happily together for ten years, until one day the Woodcutter forgot to lock the chest where he kept the cloak. He returned home to find the chest empty and his wife gone.

The Magic Swan

A boy was abused by his two older brothers. He was advised by an old woman to run away. She told him he should go to a certain pear tree at sunset, where he would find a man asleep and a swan tied to a tree by a red cord. He  should take the swan without waking the man. Everyone he met would fall in love with the swan’s plumage. When they touched it, he could say “Swan, hold fast” and they would be stuck to the swan until he touched them with a stick she would give him. The old woman predicted he would come to a town with a princess who had never laughed. If he could make the princess laugh, his fortune would be made.

The boy did as the woman advised. He successively captured a youth working in a building yard, a girl washing clothes in a stream, a chimney sweep, a clown from a traveling circus, a Mayor and the Mayor’s wife, As the old woman predicted, the boy and his procession came to a princess, who saw them and laughed. The delighted king offered the boy his choice of 1,000 crowns of gold or a piece of land. The boy chose the land, then released his captives. The Princess, attracted by the swan’s plumage, reached to touch it, and the boy captured her as well. He married her, but the swan flew away. The boy became a duke, and the old woman became his housekeeper. For the full story, see Andrew Lang, Green Fairy Book (1892).

The Six Swans

Six brothers are turned into swans by their evil stepmother. They can only take their human forms for 15 minutes every evening. In order to free them, their sister must make six shirts out of starwort, and neither speak nor laugh for six years. A king found her doing this, was taken by her beauty and married her. The Queen gave birth to a child, but the King’s wicked mother stole the child and accused the Queen of killing it. The same thing happened with the Queen’s second and third children. The third time, the King no longer believed his wife to be innocent. He sentenced her to be burned at the stake as a witch. On the day of her execution, the Queen was almost finished making the shirts for her brothers; the last shirt was missing the left arm. When she was brought to the stake, she took the shirts with her. As she was about to be burned, six swans came flying through the air. She threw the shirts over them, and they became her brothers in human form, except the youngest, who was left with a swan’s wing instead of a left arm. (In some versions the Queen did not finish the sixth shirt in time, and her youngest brother was left as a swan.) The Queen, now free to speak, defended herself against the accusations, and the evil mother-in-law was burned at the stake instead. For the full story, see Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, No. 49. Andrew Lang, Yellow Fairy Book (1894) gives a variation. This German story is similar to the Irish story of the Seven Swan Brothers, and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans. In the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales, there are dozens of European stories in which a woman saves or is saved by her brothers, who have been turned into various types of birds (type 451).

Updated May 20, 2020 to repair broken link.