philomel

plural philomels

1. poeticThe nightingale.

   And Philomel becometh dumb.

   1600, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

   2 more examples

   As Philomel in summer's front doth sing.

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet CII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   And lonely Philomel, still waking, sings.

   1713, Anne Finch, A Nocturnal Reverie

2. A musical instrument similar to the violin, but having four steel-wire strings.

1. Greekalternativehuman sciencesAlternative form of Philomela.

   Above the antique mantel was displayed / As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene / The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king / So rudely forced; […]

   1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 19