By Tales Pinto
The expression the Swan Song is a metaphor generally referring to a person's last attempt to do something great before his death. The expression is used to express the great final works of artists, or also some final attempt to maintain greatness in some career, or in any other social sphere.
The expression originates from the belief that the white swan (cygnus olor ) lived all his life chirping without much beauty or even without making any sounds, performing this action only before he died. In that last moment, a beautiful song echoed from the swan before his death. Therefore, it refers to the final work of a great artist, who would have accumulated inspiration during his life to in the end conceive a beautiful work of art.
A possible first mention of this expression would have been made by Socrates, before he committed suicide by eating hemlock, in 399 BC. Plato, in the dialogue Phaedo, presents a last sentence of Socrates, in which the great Greek philosopher had referred to swans:
“When they feel the hour of death approaching, these birds, which already sang during their lives, then display the most splendid, most beautiful song; they are happy to meet the god whose servants they are. (...) I personally don't believe they sing out of sadness; I believe, on the contrary, that, being the birds of Apollo, the swans have a gift of divination and, as they present the joys they would have enjoyed in Hades, they sing that day more joyfully than ever.” [1]
Socrates drinking the hemlock, in an engraving published in the Pictographic History of the Great Nations of the World
For a long time, this action of the white swan was believed to be true. Several were the poets or even musicians who referred to it.
However, scientists have disproved the story. White swans are not mute, as they grunt and whistle throughout their lives. They also don't perform any chants when dying.
This situation shows how expressions when they take cultural roots are difficult to use, their metaphorical meanings are worth more than their scientific truth.
[1] Living History . Year X, no. 210, p. 13.