Cygnus

When Apollo was born, "swans circled Delos seven times"...Young Sun God is born on winter solstice...And during second millennium BC, the formative period of the Greek mythology, Cygnus (Swan) constellation rose with the sun around winter solstice. Source: Stellarium app

The Swans of Apollo were "Singing swans" which "when the singers would sing hymns to Apollo, would join the chant in unison"...The only swans that "sing" are whooper swans...

These are migratory birds, which spend warm, sunny half of the year (Mar/Apr/May-Oct/Nov) in the northern regions of Eurasia, and cold, dark half of the year (Oct/Nov-Mar/Apr/May) in the southern (Greece) and western (Ireland) regions of Eurasia...

Which is why in Greece we find "Singing swans" linked to the birth of the Young Sun God Apollo at winter solstice...I talked about this in my post "The singers of Apollo"...

And why "swans always hovered over the head of Aengus", The Young God, who is said to reside "for one night and one day" inside Newgrange, Neolithic temple built in Ireland to capture the rising sun on day of the Winter Solstice. I talked about this in my post "The young one"...

This is also why the Old Sun God (which became The Devil) from Neolithic Karelia (North of Russia) was depicted standing between swans arriving from the land of the dead in the Spring and departing to the land of the dead in the autumn...

Land of the dead, according to the local folklore, being "somewhere south-west"...Where migratory whooper swans spend winters...I talked about this in my post "Bes"...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...