Swan song

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.

[1] 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 poetry and art.

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.

[7][8] Ovid mentions the legend in "The Story of Picus and Canens":[9] In tears she poured out words with a faint voice, lamenting her sad woe, as when the swan 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.

This has led some to criticize swan song beliefs since antiquity, one of the earliest[11] being Pliny the Elder: in CE 77, 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."

[14] 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.

A dramatic or notable achievement by an athlete just prior to their retirement, such as baseball player Derek Jeter's walk-off hit in his final game at Yankee Stadium,[25] might also be referred to as their "swan song".