A Daulian crow

Explanation

for "nightingale." Called Daulian because the matter of Tereus took place at Daulis in Phocis; or, some say, because the women about Procne were caught near Daulia and there changed into birds; while some understand "shaggy," for daulón means "thick-thicketed." The story of Tereus and Procne is this: Pandion had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, and gave Procne in marriage to Tereus. Tereus fell in love with Philomela, and having ravished her, cut out her tongue lest she tell anyone what had been done. She, however, weaving letters into a robe, by these revealed her own calamities to Procne. Learning what had befallen Philomela, Procne killed Itys, the son she had by Tereus, and served the boy's limbs to him as food. When Tereus learned what had happened he pursued Procne and Philomela as they fled from him. As they were being overtaken, they prayed to be made invisible, and were transformed: Procne into a nightingale, Philomela into a swallow. Whence even now swallows have their tongues cleft. Tereus was changed into a hoopoe and laments Itys to this day.