Swan song - wikipedia Swan song For other uses, see Swan song ( disambiguation ). `` The singing swan '' ( 1655 ) by Reinier van Persijn. The swan song ( ancient Greek : κύκνειον ᾆσμα ; Latin : carmen cygni ) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans ( Cygnus spp. ) sing a beautiful song just before they are to die, having been silent ( or alternatively, not so musical ) during most of their lifetime. This belief, whose basis in actuality is long - debated, had become proverbial in ancient Greece by the 3rd century BC, and was reiterated many times in later Western poetry and art. Contents 1 Origin and description 2 Controversy 3 Post-classical cultural references 4 Idiom 5 References 6 External links Origin and description 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 sublimated to those of songbirds. 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. There is a subsequent reference in Aeschylus ' Agamemnon ( verses 1444 -- 5 ) from 458 BC. In that play, Clytemnestra compares the dead Cassandra to a swan who has `` sung her last final lament ''. Plato 's Phaedo ( 84d ) records Socrates saying that, although swans sing in early life, they do not do so as beautifully as before they die. Furthermore, Aristotle noted in his History of Animals ( 615b ) that swans `` are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death ''. By the third century BC the belief had become a proverb. Ovid mentions it in `` The Story of Picus and Canens '' ( Metamorphoses, book XIV : 320 -- 396 ) : `` There, she poured out her words of grief, tearfully, in faint tones, in harmony with sadness, just as the swan sings once, in dying, its own funeral song. '' The swan was also described as a singer in the works of the poets Virgil and Martial. Controversy 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 being Pliny the Elder : in 77 AD, 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. '' However, the whooper swan ( Cygnus cygnus ), a winter visitor to parts of the eastern Mediterranean, does possess 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. The whooper swan 's nearest relatives, the trumpeter and tundra swans, share its musical tracheal loop. Zoologist D.G. Elliot reported in 1898 that a tundra swan he had shot and wounded in flight began a long glide down whilst issuing a series of `` plaintive and musical '' notes that `` sounded at times like the soft running of the notes of an octave ''. Post-classical cultural references Chaucer wrote of `` The Ialous swan, ayens his deth that singeth. '' Leonardo da Vinci noted `` The swan is white without spot, and it sings sweetly as it dies, that song ending its life. '' In 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. '' Similarly, in Othello, the dying Emilia exclaims, `` I will play the swan, / And die in music. '' The well - known Orlando Gibbons madrigal `` The Silver Swan '' states the legend thus : `` The silver Swan, who living had no Note, when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat. Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, thus sang her first and last, and sang no more : `` Farewell, all joys ! O Death, come close mine eyes ! `` More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise. '' '' `` The Swan Song '' ( `` Schwanengesang '' ) is the nickname of the 1733 Baroque Concerto written by Georg Philipp Telemann : Concerto in D minor for oboe, strings and continuo. The concerto of Telemann begins with a sad part ( adagio ) later a glad part ( allegro ), the singing of the swan itself, another sad part ( death ), and finally a hopeful end. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English phrase `` swan song '' or `` swan - song '' borrows from the German schwanen ( ge ) sang or schwanenlied. The Scottish cleric John Willison, in one of his Scripture Sermons, 1747, proposes a verse from Psalm 48 as a `` swan - song '' for the faithful. Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard painted Ossian synger sin Svanesang, or Ossian sings his swan song, in 1780 -- 1782. Samuel Taylor Coleridge made comic use of the legend when he quipped ironically : `` Swans sing before they die -- ' t were no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing. '' Tennyson 's poem `` The Dying Swan '' is a poetic evocation of the beauty of the supposed song and so full of detail as to imply that he had actually heard it : `` The wild swan 's death - hymn took the soul Of that waste place with joy Hidden in sorrow : at first to the ear The warble was low, and full and clear ;... But anon her awful jubilant voice, With a music strange and manifold, Flow 'd forth on a carol free and bold ; As when a mighty people rejoice With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold... '' Tennyson 's poem was an inspiration for the ballet The Dying Swan created for Anna Pavlova in 1905 and danced to the music of Le cygne by the French composer Camille Saint - Saëns. The band Led Zeppelin 's record label for the second half of their career was Swan Song Records. Their first five releases were on Atlantic records, the next five were on Swan Song Records. Swan Song is one of the last tracks on singer Lana Del Reys album Honeymoon Idiom By extension, `` swan song '' has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment. For example, an athlete that wins a championship or breaks records in their final season are sometimes said to have had a `` swan song season. '' Examples : Derek Jeter 's walk - off hit in his final game at Yankee Stadium. Nico Rosberg retiring five days after winning his only World Drivers ' Championship in 2016. Peyton Manning winning the Super Bowl in his last season. Kobe Bryant dropping 60 points in his final game. Andy Pettitte throwing his first complete game in 7 years in his final start. By being credited with the win, he evened his 2013 record to 11 -- 11, ensuring he finished his career having never recorded a losing season. Ned Jarrett winning the 1965 NASCAR title and then surprisingly retiring. Raymond Borque winning the Stanley Cup in 2001, his final season in the NHL. Tom Searle from Architects writing Memento Mori as his final song before he died of cancer in 2016. References Jump up ^ Aesop ( 1998 ). The Complete Fables. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0 - 14 - 044649 - 4., p. 127 Jump up ^ Arnott, W. Geoffrey ( October 1977 ). `` Swan Songs ''. Greece & Rome. 24 ( 2 ) : 149 -- 153. JSTOR 642700. ^ Jump up to : Brazil, Mark ( 2003 ). The Whooper Swan. T & AD Poyser. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7136 - 6570 - 3. pp. 64 -- 65. ( Online version ) Jump up ^ Ovid. `` Metamorphoses ( Kline ) 14, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia E-Text Center ; Bk XIV : 320 -- 396 : The transformation of Picus ''. University of Virginia. ^ Jump up to : Arnott, W. Geoffrey ( 2007 ). Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z. Routledge. ISBN 0 - 203 - 94662 - 6. pp. 182 -- 184. ( Online version ) Jump up ^ Peterson, Roger Tory ; Guy Mountfort ; P.A.D. Hollum ; P.A.D. Hollom ( 2001 ). A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. Houghton Mifflin Field Guides. ISBN 0 - 618 - 16675 - 0., p. 49 Jump up ^ Johnsgard, Paul A. ( January 2013 ). `` The Swans of Nebraska ''. Prairie Fire. USA. Retrieved 21 January 2013. Jump up ^ Skeat, Walter W. ( 1896 ). Chaucer : the Minor Poems. Clarendon Press., p. 86 ( Online version ) Jump up ^ da Vinci, Leonardo. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Complete. Google. ( ( 1 ) ) Jump up ^ The Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 2 Jump up ^ Othello, Act 5 Scene 2 Jump up ^ James Manheim. `` Georg Philipp Telemann : Funeral Music for Garlieb Sillem ''. AllMusic. Jump up ^ `` swan, n. ''. Oxford English Dictionary. June 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` www.the-highway.com ''. Retrieved 3 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` Sal 217B ''. Statens Museum for Kunst website. Retrieved 8 February 2016. Jump up ^ Tennyson, `` The Dying Swan, '' The Early poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson ( Project Gutenberg text ), search on `` shawm. '' This and other sources assert not merely that the swan sings, but that the song is beautiful. Jump up ^ Matthew Naughtin, Ballet Music : A Handbook, p. 210 Jump up ^ `` swansong -- definition of swansong in English from the Oxford dictionary ''. Jump up ^ Waldstein, David ( September 25, 2014 ). `` Night 's Hero : Who Else ? ''. The New York Times. Retrieved April 12, 2017. Jump up ^ Benson, Andrew ( December 2, 2016 ). `` Nico Rosberg retires : World champion quits Formula 1 five days after title win ''. BBC Sport. Retrieved April 12, 2017. Jump up ^ Marchand, Andrew ( September 29, 2013 ). `` Andy Pettitte : A day ' I 'll never forget ' ''. ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved April 12, 2017. External links The dictionary definition of swan song at Wiktionary Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swan_song&oldid=806718871 '' Categories : Legends Swans Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from May 2012 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Italiano עברית Magyar Nederlands Norsk Norsk nynorsk Português Suomi Svenska اردو Edit links This page was last edited on 23 October 2017, at 18 : 55. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: where does the phrase swan song come from
Answer: ancient Greece