Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from
Greek mythology in which the god
Zeus, in the form of a
swan, seduces or rapes
Leda. 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. In the
W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to many versions of the story, 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.