Named for the daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, and wife of Tereus, king of Thrace. She sent her husband to Athens to bring her sister Philomela {see planet  (196)}, to whom she was attached, to Thrace. Tereus became enamored of Philomela and she was carried of to a castle and her tongue removed; reporting back, Tereus claimed she had died. When the infamy became known Prokne served her son Itys to her husband at a feast. Upon this disclosure he drew his sword but was changed into a hoopoe; Philomela, also present, into a nightingale, and Prokne into a swallow. The discoverer stated: “Prokne, found on the day of the vernal equinox, was suggested by the swallow coming with spring; in May followed Philomela, the nightingale.” (H 24; AN 96, 336 (1880)) _ _.