Leda (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the wife of Tyndareus, and mother, either by him or Zeus, of Castor and Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra. A frequent subject in art is Zeus courting Leda in the form of a swan; Helen was believed to have been hatched from an egg, preserved at Sparta into historic times.

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. Their consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in two eggs from which hatched Helen - later known as the beautiful Helen Of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux (also known as the Dioscuri - also spelled Kastor and Polydeuces). Which children are the progeny of Tynadareus - the mortal king, and which are of Zeus, and are thus half-immortal is not consistent among accounts, nor is which child hatched from which egg.

The 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.

Leda and the swan and Leda and the egg were popular subjects in the ancient art.

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