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Literary References to Leda

W.B. Yeats’ poem, ‘Leda and the Swan’ has aroused controversy, partly because of the dissonance between its subject matter – rape – and its form – a controlled and elegant sonnet.  Try reading it in conjunction with H.D’s ‘Leda’.

Leda’s daughter, Helen of Troy, inspired one of the most famous lines of Renaissance drama: Dr Faustus’ exclamation: ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships’ [Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, V.i.]

Correggio’s Leda and the Swan, c. 1532

Leda

Leda was the beautiful daughter of Thestius, King of Aetolia.

She was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan.

She became pregnant by the god, and gave birth to the heavenly twins, Castor and Pollux, and Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world.  In certain versions of the story, one or all of these children were hatched from eggs. 

Leda is also sometimes named as the mother of Clytemnestra – subject of the Greek tragedy Electra by Euripides – by her husband Tyndareus.