Aletis and Erigone

Icarus had beautiful daughters: the twin Aletis and Erigone. One day the god Dionysus knocked at his door. Dionysus had a bad reputation because of wine and women, but Icarus was a hospitable man and welcomed the high guest. To show his gratitude, Dionysus taught Icarus the art of flying and meanwhile seduced both his daughters.

After the girls had spent a summer with Dionysus, he placed them in the sky as a double star, in the constellation Cygnus. From there they would forever shine upon him. But when winter came he regretted his act. He missed the warmth of the girls and called them back.

The homeward journey went not as planned. Dionysus was drunk. The sisters flew off course and didn’t land at the top of the Olympus where all the gods lived, but in a forest in the valley. When a crow found the girls, their bodies were as cold as ice.

(Dionysus placed the girls back in the sky to revive them, but the binary star never twinkled again…)