Halcyonian Calm

Halcyon, legendary bird builds its nest only on a calm sea (happy forecast); halcyonian days = the seven days that precede and the seven days that follow the winter solstice, during which it is said that the halcyon builds its nest and the sea is calm – very beautiful image (penetrating, which stays with you): birth on sea, from sea (mythical theme), conflation of origin and water (Thalassa, by Ferenczi), and above all less mythic and more synesthetic: the rocking calm, the panorama-rhythm-rumor – we could speak of a kind of halcyonian function of the panorama (view + rhythm).

Roland Barthes, The Neutral, 165.