Leda and the Swan
is a
motif from
Greek mythology, in which
Zeus came to
Leda in the form of a
swan. According to later Greek mythology, Leda
bore
Helen and
Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same
time bearing
Castor and
Clytemnestra, children of her husband
Tyndareus, the King of
Sparta As the story goes, Zeus took the form of
a swan and raped or seduced Leda on the same night
she slept with her husband, King
Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs
from which the children hatched.
In other versions, Helen is a daughter of
Nemesis, the goddess who personified the
disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride
of
Hubris.The motif was rarely seen in the large-scale
sculpture of antiquity, although
Timotheos is known to have represented Leda in
sculpture
small-scale examples survive showing both reclining
and standing poses,
in
cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta
oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of
Ovid and
Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the
Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a
classicizing theme, with
erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance.
