Dictionary Leda

Greek religion.

Leda was the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus.

By Zeus, who came to her in the form of a swan, she was mother of Castor and Pollux.

In another story she was the mother by Zeus of Pollux and Helen, and by Tyndareus of Castor and Clytemnestra.

Paintings

Texts

daughter of Thestius: Apollod. 1.7.7; Paus. 3.13.8
mother of Castor and Pollux by Zeus: Apollod. 1.8.2
wife of Tyndareus: Apollod. 3.10.5
Zeus as a swan consorts with her: Apollod. 3.10.5
gives birth to egg: Paus. 3.16.1
nurse, not mother, of Helen: Paus. 1.33.7
she bears Pollux and Helen to Zeus, and Castor and Clytaemnestra to Tyndareus: Apollod. 1.3.5
Leda the wife of Tyndarus, who bore him two famous sons, Castor breaker of horses, and Pollux the mighty boxer. Homer, The Odyssey (ed. Samuel Butler): book 11, line 298 [Scroll 11]
neat ankled: Homeric Hymns : hymn 33 [To the Dioscuri]
Helen, the child of Leda. P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid: book 7, line 341

Sculpture

Vases

See also

Athena Shrine