Leda+and+the+Swan

=Leda And The Swan=

Leda and the Swan is a part of Greek mythology. Leda was the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus, but Zeus wanted her. So the god took the form of a swan and seduced (or raped, depending on the version of the story) Leda. There tend to be divergent retellings of the myth, but the most widely accepted version is that Leda laid two eggs: in one were her mortal children Castor and Clytemnestra who were fathered by Tyndareus. In the other were her immortal children Helen and Polydeuces fathered by Zeus. There is also a version of the myth in which Helen is actually the daughter of the goddess Nemesis and Zeus and her egg was given to Leda who adopted Helen as her own. Leda's daughter, Helen is the very same Helen of Troy who appears in Homer's Iliad.

The myth was especially popular and well-known during the Middle Ages, but it became even more prominent during the Italian Renaissance. Many dfferent artistic renderings of Leda and the Swan have been done. One of the most famous renderings is the one below done by Leonardo da Vinci in 1504.



//A sudden blow: the great wings beating still// //Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed// //By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,// //He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.//

//How can those terrified vague fingers push// //The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?// //And how can body, laid in that white rush,// //But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?//

//A shudder in the loins engenders there// //The broken wall, the burning roof and tower// //And Agamemnon dead.//

//Being so caught up,//

//So mastered by the brute blood of the air,// //Did she put on his knowledge with his power// //Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?//


 * "Leda And The Swan" by William B. Yeats**


 * William B. Yeats wrote "Leda and the Swan" during the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 1923. Some believe the poem was written to draw attention to Yeat's homeland and the violence plaguing it. The poem is often seen as a reflection of the way a single event can be used to understand the larger picture, such as in the way the single event of Zeus's seduction of Leda led to the birth of Helen of Troy, the eventual destruction of Greek civilization, and beginning and the modern age.


 * "Leda and The Swan" has parallels with "The Second Coming" as it represents a change in eras. "Leda" is the beginning of a new time; it's the true starting point to Helen of Troy's story.


 * //General tip-offs to the allusion of this work would be the presence of swans, transformation or gods.//**

//**Other myths in which Leda and the Swan is referenced:**// The Burning of Troy, King Agamemnon.

//**Pop Culture references:**// There is a band in existence today called Leda and the Swans. media type="custom" key="10595608"