Swan song: Difference between revisions

[[File:Gravure door Reinier van Persijn.jpg|thumb|right|"''The singing swan''" (1655) by [[Reinier van Persijn]].]]

The '''swan song''' ({{lang-grc|κύκνειον ᾆσμα}}; {{lang-la|carmen cygni}}) is a [[metaphor]]ical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before [[death]] or [[retirement]]. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that [[swan]]s sing a beautiful song just before their death sincewhile they have been silent (or alternatively not so musical) for most of their lifetime. The belief, whose basis has been long debated, had become proverbial in [[ancient Greece]] by the 3rd century BC and was reiterated many times in later [[Western culture|Western]] poetry and art. Swans learn a variety of sounds throughout their life timelifetime. Their sounds are more distinguishingdistinguishable during courting rituals and not correlated with death.

In [[Greek mythology]], the swan was a bird consecrated to [[Apollo]], and it was therefore considered a symbol of harmony and beauty and its limited capabilities as a singer were [[sublime (philosophy)|sublimated]] to those of [[songbird]]s.

[[Aesop]]'s fable of "[[The Swan and the Goose]]" incorporates the swan song legend as saving its life when it was caught by mistake instead of the goose but was recognized by its song.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Complete Fables|last=Aesop|publisher=Penguin Classics|year=1998|isbn=0-14-044649-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/completefables00aeso/page/126/mode/2up |page=127}}</ref> There is a subsequent reference in [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'' from 458 BCE. In that play, [[Clytemnestra]] compares the dead [[Cassandra]] to a swan who has "sung her last lament".<ref>{{cite web |author=Aeschylus |title=Agamemnon |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D1431 |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |at=Lines 1444–5.}}</ref> In|access-date=9 [[Plato]]'sSeptember ''[[Phaedo]]'',2021 the|archive-date=9 characterSeptember of2021 [[Socrates]] says that, although swans sing in early life, they do not do so as beautifully as before they die|archive-url=https://web. He adds that there is a popular belief that the swans' song is sorrowful, but Socrates prefers to think that they sing for joy, having "foreknowledge of the blessings in the other world"archive.<ref>{{cite org/web |url=/20210909205311/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999:text:1999.01.01700004:card%3Atext%3DPhaedo%3Asection%3D84e3D1431 |author=Plato |title=Phaedo |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |at=84e–85b}}</ref> [[Aristotle]] noted in his ''[[History of Animals]]'' that swans "are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death".<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |translatorurl-laststatus=Thompsonlive |translator-first=D'Arcy W. |date=1910 |url=https://archive.org/details/historiaanimaliu00aris_0/page/n421/mode/2up |title=Historia Animalium |at=615b |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}</ref> By the third century BC the belief had become a proverb.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Arnott |first=W. Geoffrey |title=Swan Songs |journal=Greece & Rome |volume=24 |number=2 |date=October 1977 |pages=149–153 |doi=10.1017/S0017383500018441 |jstor=642700}}</ref><ref name="Brazil, Mark 2003">{{cite book|title=The Whooper Swan|last=Brazil |first=Mark|publisher=T & A D Poyser|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7136-6570-3 |pages=64–65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-E6dEYkcwsC&pg=PA64}}</ref>

about to die sings a funereal dirge.}}It is also possible that the swan song has some connection to the lament of [[Cycnus of Liguria]] at the death of his lover, [[Phaethon]], the ambitious and headstrong son of [[Helios]] and [[Clymene (mother of Phaethon)|Clymene]]. (The name Cycnus is the Latinised form of the Greek, which means "swan".) [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] proposes in his ''Fabulae'' that the mournful Cycnus, who is transformed into a swan by the gods, joins the dirge of the amber-crying poplars, the [[Heliades]], the half-sisters of the dead Phaethon, who also experienced a metamorphosis at the death of the reckless Phaethon.<ref>{{Cite journalbook|last=Hyginus <Mythographus>|editor-first1=Peter K|editor-last1=Marshall|date=2002-12-31|titlechapter=Fabulae|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110975512|doi=10.1515/9783110975512|isbn=9783110975512|access-date=16 December 2021|archive-date=22 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922071735/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110975512/html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most familiar European swan, the [[mute swan]] (''Cygnus olor''), although not actually mute, is known neither for musicality nor to vocalize as it dies. This has led some to criticize swan song beliefs since antiquity, one of the earliest<ref name="Arnott, W. Geoffrey 2007">{{cite book|title=Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z|last=Arnott |first=W. Geoffrey|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-203-94662-6 |pages=182–184|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4pN4OApWw4C&dq=arnott+whooper+swan&pg=PA183|access-date=19 November 2021|archive-date=22 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922071753/https://books.google.com/books?id=b4pN4OApWw4C&dq=arnott+whooper+swan&pg=PA183|url-status=live}}</ref> being [[Pliny the Elder]]: in CE 77, ''[[Pliny's Natural History|Natural History]]'' (book 10, chapter xxxii: ''olorum morte narratur flebilis cantus, falso, ut arbitror, aliquot experimentis''), states: "observation shows that the story that the dying swan sings is false." Peterson et al. note that ''Cygnus olor'' is "not mute but lacks bugling call, merely honking, grunting, and hissing on occasion."<ref>{{cite book|title=A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe|last1=Peterson |first1=R. T. |last2=Mountfort |first2=G. |last3=Hollum |first3=P. A. D. |year=2001|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Field Guides|isbn=0-618-16675-0 |page=49}}</ref>

However, the [[whooper swan]] (''Cygnus cygnus''), a winter visitor to parts of the eastern Mediterranean, does possesspossesses a 'bugling' call, and has been noted for issuing a drawn-out series of notes as its lungs collapse upon expiry, both being a consequence of an additional tracheal loop within its sternum. This was proposed by naturalist [[Peter Pallas]] as the basis for the legend. Both mute and whooper swans appear to be represented in ancient Greek and Egyptian art.<ref name="Brazil, Mark 2003"/><ref name="Arnott, W. Geoffrey 2007"/>

The notion that swans sing a final song before dying continued to influence Western culture into the early modern era. For instance, [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[Parlement of Foules]]'' contains a reference to "the Ialous swan, ayens his deth that singeth [the jealous swan, that sings at his death]".<ref>{{cite book | last = Skeat | first = Walter W. | year = 1896 | title = Chaucer: the Minor Poems | publisher = Clarendon Press |page=86 |url=https://archive.org/details/minorpoems00chaugoog/page/n184}}</ref> [[Leonardo da Vinci]] also mentioned the legend in his notebooks: "The swan is white without spot, and it sings sweetly as it dies, that song ending its life."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Richter |editor-first=J. P. |date=2020 |title=The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Complete |author=da Vinci, Leonardo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8151FQ3RH5UC&pg=PA1238 |publisher=Library of Alexandria |isbn=9781465514141 |access-date=19 November 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922071736/https://books.google.com/books?id=8151FQ3RH5UC&pg=PA1238 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', Portia exclaims "Let music sound while he doth make his choice; / Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, / Fading in music."<ref>[http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=merchantvenice#1405 ''The Merchant of Venice'', Act 3 Scene 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807112853/http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=merchantvenice#1405 |date=7 August 2017 }}. Hosted at Open Source Shakespeare.</ref> Similarly, in ''[[Othello]]'', the dying Emilia exclaims, "I will play the swan, / And die in music."<ref>[http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=othello#3598 ''Othello'', Act 5 Scene 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807113135/http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=othello#3598 |date=7 August 2017 }}. Hosted at Open Source Shakespeare.</ref>

Other poets who have taken inspiration from the legend include [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], whose poem "The Dying Swan" is a poetic evocation of the "wild swan's death-hymn";<ref name=tennyson>{{cite book |last=Tennyson |first=Alfred |authorlink=Alfred, Lord Tennyson |chapter=The Dying Swan |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8601/pg8601-images.html#chap20 |title=The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson |via=Project Gutenberg |accessdate=9 September 2021 |archive-date=9 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909202648/https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8601/pg8601-images.html#chap20 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], who quipped: "Swans sing before they die— 't were no bad thing / Should certain persons die before they sing."<ref>{{cite book |last=Coleridge |first=Samuel Taylor |date=1848 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.co.ukcom/books/edition/The_Poems_of_S_T_Coleridge/qSOnmVITuZkC?hlid=en&gbpv=1qSOnmVITuZkC&pg=PA350 |title=The Poems of S. T. Coleridge |location=London |publisher=William Pickering |page=350 |access-date=8 September 2021 |archive-date=22 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922071736/https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Poems_of_S_T_Coleridge/qSOnmVITuZkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA350 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The phrase "swan song" has also taken on a metaphorical sense, referring to the final work of a creative artist, especially when produced shortly before death, or more generally to any final performance or accomplishment.<ref>{{cite OED|swansong}}</ref> For example, ''[[Schwanengesang]]'' (''Swan Song'') is the title of a posthumously- published collection of songs by [[Franz Schubert]], written at the end of his life;. andIt is the title usually given to [[Heinrich Schuetz]]' Opus 13 from 1671, the year before he died. The term is often applied in thea samesimilar way to the works of modern musicians, such as [[David Bowie]]'s ''[[Blackstar (album)|Blackstar]]'',<ref>{{cite web |last=Denham |first=Jess |date=11 January 2016 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/david-bowie-dead-swansong-lazarus-takes-poignant-new-meaning-lyrics-and-music-video-a6805571.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/david-bowie-dead-swansong-lazarus-takes-poignant-new-meaning-lyrics-and-music-video-a6805571.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=David Bowie dead: Swansong 'Lazarus' takes on poignant new meaning in lyrics and music video |work=Independent}}</ref> and [[QueenJohnny (band)|QueenCash]]'s "rendition of ''[[InnuendoHurt (Nine Inch Nails song)|InnuendoHurt]]".'',<ref>{{cite webbook |lastlast1=SenichBlumczynski |firstfirst1=EricPiotr |datetitle=26Experiencing January 2019 |url=httpsTranslationality://i95rock.com/remembering-freddie-mercurys-hauntingly-epic-swan-song-queens-innuendo/ |title=RememberingMaterial Freddieand Mercury'sMetaphorical hauntinglyJourneys epic swan song: Queen's Innuendo|date=2023 |publisher=i95Taylor & Francis}}</ref> A[[J dramaticDilla|J or notable achievement by an athlete just prior to their retirement (such as baseball playerDilla's]] ''[[DerekDonuts Jeter(album)|Donuts]]'s', [[Glossary of baseballQueen (Wband)#walk-off win|walk-off hitQueen]]'s in his final game at ''[[YankeeInnuendo Stadium(song)|Innuendo]])''<ref>{{cite web |last=HochSenich |first=BryanEric |date=326 January 20152019 |url=https://www.mlbi95rock.com/news/derekremembering-jetersfreddie-mercurys-hauntingly-epic-swan-song-onequeens-for-the-agesinnuendo/c-105398418 |title=JeterRemembering Freddie Mercury's swanhauntingly song one for the ages |work=MLB.com}}</ref> might also be referred to as theirepic "swan song".: An example, in the [[film industry]], is represented by "[[The Last Movie Star]]", [[Rolling Stone]] referred to the film as ReynoldsQueen's "swan song".<ref>{{Cite webInnuendo |lastpublisher=Traversi95 |firstaccess-date=Peter8 |last2=TraversSeptember |first2=Peter2021 |archive-date=2018-03-308 |title='TheSeptember Last Movie Star' Review: Burt Reynolds Shines in His Swan Song2021 |archive-url=https://wwwweb.rollingstonearchive.comorg/moviesweb/movie-reviews20210908183934/thehttps://i95rock.com/remembering-lastfreddie-moviemercurys-starhauntingly-review-burt-reynolds-shines-in-hisepic-swan-song-203424queens-innuendo/ |accessurl-datestatus=2022-03-12live |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> Theand film[[Nirvana was(band)|Nirvana]]'s onerendition of Reynolds's latter film projects, and he died several months after'[[In the film's release.<ref>{{Cite web Pines|date=2018-09-06Where |title=BurtDid ReynoldsYou DiesSleep atLast 82 |url=https://wwwNight]]''.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/burt-reynolds-dead-actor-dies-at-82/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Us Weekly |language=en-US}}</ref>