A swan song. Meaning, origin, examples of the use of phraseological units

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Winged words, phraseologism. Meaning, history of origin, examples of use

Winged words, phraseological units

Directory / Winged words, phraseological units

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a swan song

Aesop
Aesop

Phraseologism: A swan song.

Meaning: About the last, usually the most significant work, creation, the last manifestation of the talent of an artist, writer, etc.

Origin: For the first time it is found in one of the fables of the legendary fabulist of Ancient Greece Aesop (VI century BC): "They say that swans sing before death." The poet had in mind the legend according to which swans, these non-singing, "silent" birds, acquire a voice a few moments before death, and this dying singing of swans is amazingly beautiful. The expression was also used by the famous ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BC) in his tragedy "Agamemnon", the heroine of which Clytemnestra compares the dying words of Cassandra with the cry of a whooper swan: "She who, like a swan, sang her last mournful, death song. In ancient Rome, this image was also very popular: the famous orator Cicero, in his essay "On the Orator", writes about the speech that Licinius Krasus delivered a moment before his death: "It was like a swan song." After Cicero, this phrase in the generally accepted sense - "swan song" - became stable. The well-known German naturalist Alfred Edmund Brem (1829-1884) became interested in the legend about the last "song" of the swan. In his 6-volume work "The Life of Animals", he cites the testimonies of other naturalists about the whooper swan: "His voice resembles the pleasant ringing of a silver bell ... Everything that is said about the song of a dying swan is not fiction at all, since the last breaths of a mortally wounded swan break out from him in the form of a song. And Brehm sums it up: “According to all these data, the legend of the swan song turns out to be very plausible. It is obviously based on reality, but poetry and fairy tales have given it a different form. The dying swan cannot be called a real singer, but his last breath is just as melodic, like any other published by him" (A. E. Brem, Animal Life, vol. VI, St. Petersburg, 1894).

Random phraseology:

Good impulses are destined for you, but nothing is given to accomplish ...

Meaning:

About untalented people.

Origin:

The final lines of the poem "Knight for an Hour" (1863) by N. A. Nekrasov (1821-1877): "You are not yet in the grave, you are alive, // But for the cause you are dead for a long time. // Good impulses are destined for you, // But nothing can be done..."

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