LEDA AND THE SWAN

God and Daughters of Men,

Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god in the form of a swan, seduces 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

See my rendition of the Trojan Women where all these characters play a role.

William Yates

LEDA AND THE SWAN

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Ruben Dairio

El cisne en la sombra parece de nieve;

su pico es de ámbar, del alba al trasluz;

el suave crepúsculo que pasa tan breve

las cándidas alas sonrosa de luz.

Y luego, en las ondas del lago azulado,

después que la aurora perdió su arrebol,

las alas tendidas y el cuello enarcado,

el cisne es de plata, bailado de sol.

Tal es, cuando esponja las plumas de seda,

olímpico pájaro herido de amor,

y viola en las linfas sonoras a Leda,

buscando su pico los labios en flor.

Suspira la bella desnuda y vencida,

y en tanto que al aire sus quejas se van

del fondo verdoso de fronda tupida

chispean turbados los ojos de Pan.

The swan in the shadow of snow seems;

peak is of amber, the dawn to the light;

the soft twilight happens so short

candida dyes your light wings.

And then, in the waves of the blue lake,

after dawn lost its glow,

outstretched wings and neck arched,

the swan is silver, sun danced.

That is, when the feathers silk sponge,

Olympic lovelorn bird,

and viola sound lymphs in Leda,

seeking their peak blooming lips.

Sighs the beautiful naked and defeated,

and air while their complaints are

green background of dense foliage

troubled eyes sparkle Pan