In Greek mythology, Leda was an Aetolian princess who became queen consort of Sparta through her marriage to King Tyndareus. Zeus desired her and, to escape the jealousy of his wife Hera, came to her disguised as a swan and assaulted her. From this union and from her marriage Leda became the mother of four famous children: Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, and the twins Castor and Pollux. The "Leda and the Swan" motif became an especially popular subject in the visual arts from the Renaissance onward.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Leda (mythology)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Leda's parentage is disputed, but she is most commonly identified as the daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, a son of Ares. Her mother is variously named as Leucippe, Deidameia, Eurythemis, or Laophonte, while alternate traditions make her the daughter of Glaucus and Laophonte, or of Sisyphus and Panteiduia.
Leda is given up to six siblings, including the sisters Althaea and Hypermnestra and the brothers Iphiclus, Plexippus, Eurypylus, and Evippus, though some sources list fewer.
She married King Tyndareus of Sparta and bore him three daughters: Phoebe, Timandra, and Philonoe. She also bore four further children of mixed parentage: Helen of Troy and Pollux were fathered by Zeus, while Clytemnestra and Castor were fathered by Tyndareus. Because Leda lay with both the god and her husband on the same night, Castor was mortal while his twin Pollux was immortal.
II.Mythology
The myths surrounding Leda center on her seduction by Zeus and the births of her celebrated children. While she was married to Tyndareus, Zeus came to desire her. To avoid alerting Hera, he transformed himself into a swan and, feigning flight from a pursuing eagle, fell into Leda's lap, where he assaulted her. Hyginus places this event by the river Eurotas. Later that same day, Leda also lay with Tyndareus.
In the common version of the story, Leda gave birth to two eggs: one produced Helen and Pollux, and the other Castor and Clytemnestra. Some accounts, however, omit the detail of the eggs.
An alternate tradition holds that the goddess Nemesis, not Leda, was Helen's true mother, having herself been impregnated by Zeus in the form of a swan. Nemesis laid an egg that a shepherd found and gave to Leda, who kept it in a chest until Helen hatched from it. Zeus is said to have commemorated the birth by setting the swan among the stars as the constellation Cygnus.
III.In art
"Leda and the Swan," "Leda and the Egg," and "Leda with her children" have remained popular artistic subjects, especially from the Classical period and again during the Renaissance. Artists who have treated the theme include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Salvador Dalí, and Cy Twombly. Honoré Desmond Sharrer painted a surrealist work titled "Leda & the Folks" that pairs Leda with the parents of Elvis Presley, and the Australian artist Sidney Nolan produced over a dozen interpretations in the 1950s and 1960s linked to Trojan War mythology.
The myth also inspired William Butler Yeats' Modernist poem "Leda and the Swan." Eli Goldstone's 2017 novel "Strange Heart Beating" takes its title from Yeats' poem, and in October 2022 the musician Hozier released "Swan Upon Leda" in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.