Alcyone and Ceyx. According to Apollodorus, Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, and her husband Ceyx, son of the morning star, ruled in Trachis and impiously called each other Hera and Zeus. For that reason, Zeus turned them into birds, she an alcyon (kingfisher) and he a ceyx (tern). In the Metamorphoses, Ovid gives another account. Ceyx was distinguished for his great love of Alcyone. When he was drowned on his way to consult an oracle, Alcyone learned of his death in a dream. She went down to the sea and there found his body. In her grief, she was transformed into a kingfisher. As she flew by the body of her dead husband, she touched it, and it, too, was transformed into a kingfisher. The Ovidian story of Alcyone and Ceyx has been especially popular in poetry and music, but only rarely a subject of the visual arts. Classical Sources. Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.384—748. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.7.3-4.