"Will you not allow that I have as much of the spirit of prophecy in me as the swans? For they, when they perceive that they must die, having sung all their life long, do then sing more than ever... But men ... slanderously affirm of the swans that they sing a lament at the last, not considering that no bird sings when cold, or hungry, or in pain..."

        -- Plato, "Phaedo"