According to the myth, Alcyone, before she became a bird, she was a beautiful woman, daughter of God of the winds Aeolus and Enarete. 

She was married to Kifka. They were very happy together that they started to think that were not like common people. 

Gradually they began to think that they were equal to Gods. Alcyone and Kifka would often refer themselves as “Zeus” and “Hera”. 

This angered Zeus, so while the Kifka was with his ship to the open sea, Zeus  threw a thunderbolt and crushed his ship to punish him .Kifka helpless as he was, fall into the raging waves and drown.

When Alcyone learned the fact, went anxiously at the shore, looking for her husband .  Μaybe he was  alive. But the only thing that she found was a few broken wood that water had washed up. She started crying inconsolable days and nights lamenting the loss of her beloved.

Out of compassion, the gods changed Alcyone into bird named after her. Because Alcyone was laying her eggs in the heart of the winter and hatched them on the rocks of the coast, the waves rush ashore, climbed the cliffs and destroyed her nest and the eggs.

Zeus feeling sorry for her again , he create a period of 14 days in winter where storms never occur and during which Alcyone ( kingfisher in English) laid her eggs and made her nest on the beach.