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A ‘swan song’ is the final act or performance someone gives before they die, or, more often and less dramatically, before they retire, leave office (if a politician or other public figure) or break up (if a band). The expression derives from the ancient belief that swans spent their lives as mute birds, and that it was only with the onset of death that they would erupt into song for the first and only time. Now, this belief is clearly hogwash, but that didn’t stop some pretty impressive names throughout the ages believing in it, and it is an idea that has been around since the Ancient Greeks. For example, Socrates explained to Plato that the swan was sacred to the god Apollo, and that its song at its death was in fact an expression of great joy that it was finally to join its master.

And the Greeks weren’t alone. Even though records from as early as AD 77 show that people were aware it was false, the likes of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron and Tennyson have all referred to this romantic idea in their work. The actual phrase ‘swan song’ only came into the language in the 1830s, however, and was coined by Thomas Carlyle, after the German Schwanengesang.