Leda (mythology)

Leda, by Gustave Moreau

Leda with the Swan, by Corregio

In Greek mythology, Leda was the daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and the wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta.

Leda was loved by Zeus, who seduced her in the guise of a swan. As a swan, Zeus fell into her arms for protection from a pursuing eagle. Their consummation resulted in an egg, from which hatched Helen - later known as the beautiful Helen Of Troy.

From the same egg, or a different egg, was Castor and Polydeuces (otherwise known as the Dioscuri) and Clytemnestra.

Accounts vary as to who fathered whom, but the general consensus is that Helen and Polydeuces were the immortal children of Zeus, while Castor and Clytemnestra were the mortal children of Tyndareus.

Leda also had other daughters by Tyndareus: Timandra, Phoebe, Philonoe.

Another account of the myth states that Nemesis was the mother of Helen, and was also impregnated by Zeus in the guise of a swan. A shepherd found the egg and gave it to Leda, who carefully kept it in a chest until the egg hatched. When the egg hatched, Leda adopted Helen as her daughter. Zeus also commemorated the birth of Helen by creating the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, in the sky.

Leda and the swan and Leda and the egg were popular subjects in the ancient art. In the postclassical arts, it became a potent source of inspiration.

See also Leda and the Swan for the motif in the visual arts and the poem by William Yeats.

References

*March, J., Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 030435161X
*Peck, H., Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898.