Leda's Fate In Greek Mythology

When Zeus and Leto fell in love, he got Leto pregnant with twins. When Leto got pregnant, Zeus was with Hera at the time. Hera found out about Leto being pregnant with Zeus’s kids and she got angry with Leto and she cursed her. Hera gave her the curse to where Leto could not give birth to any island connected to the ground or the sea floor. Zeus found out that Hera cursed Leto, so he made an island arise from the sea floor so that she can give birth to the twins. After Zeus made an island arise from the floor, Delos, Leto found a place on the island and started to give birth to the twins. Hera found out about Zeus making an island arise from the sea floor, she went out looking for Leto, since she could not find her she kidnapped the Goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia. Since the Goddess of childbirth was kidnapped, Leto had a long and painful childbirth. Artemis was the first to be born and then a few days later Apollo was born. Every single God and Goddess was there to witness the birth

Unable to come up with one on her own, “She petitioned her parents, Earth (Gaia) and starry Heaven (Ouranos), to put together some plan so that the birth of her child might go unnoticed, and she would make devious Cronos pay for the avengers of her father and children” (145). In this circumstance, Rheia chose to ask the first generation due to the fact that they had dealt with similar situations and had a reason to deceive their son. Therefore, in hopes of keeping her child, Rheia started the plan. Right after she gave birth to Zeus, she hid him away in Crete. “Then she wrapped up a great stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to Cronos, Ouranos’ son, the great lord and king of the earlier gods. He took it in his hands and rammed it down into his belly, the poor fool!” (145). The characteristic of deceitfulness became common due to the fact it was the only way for mothers to save their children. The grief of losing her children caused Rheia to go against her husband’s rule, but in the end that was the best choice for herself and her family. Rheia’s deception, however, had a much more positive effect than had Gaia’s betrayal in the first generation. Thanks to her actions, Zeus grew up without knowing abuse and eventually came back to take over his father’s

His affair with a woman named Leto led to the birth of the twins Apollo and Artemis. Hera being the jealous wife she was, forced Leto to roam the earth in search of a place to give birth, for Hera had stopped her from gaining shelter on land or at sea. The only place she could go was to the isle of Delos in the middle of the Aegean Sea, for Delos was a floating island. This would be one of many of Hera’s revenges on her husband’s affairs. Zeus used many different disguises to seduce women. When he seduced the Spartan queen Leda, he transformed himself into a beautiful swan, and from the egg which Leda produced, two sets of twins were born. They were Polydeuces and Castor and Clytemnestra and Helen of Troy. He also visited princess Danae as a shower of gold, and from this, the hero Perseus was born. He kidnapped the Phoenician princess Europa, disguised as a bull, then carried her on his back to the island of Crete where she had three sons. They were Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. These were just some of his many children. Zeus had many Temples and festivals in his honor, the most famous was Olympia, the magnificent "Temple of Zeus", which held the gold and ivory statue of the enthroned Zeus, which was sculpted by Phidias. It was later to become one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". Also the Olympic Games and many other numerous festivals throughout Greece were held in

Meanwhile, there was the mighty Zeus, the king of the gods, who was married to the goddess Hera. Hera is the goddess of War and Honesty, but she had an awful temper and often took it out on her husband, Zeus. Hera only loved Zeus because he was the king of gods and she wanted some of that power for herself, so she never let him leave her side, and although he was her husband, she talked badly about him, and constantly blamed and insulted him. Aphrodite witnessed this many times and started to feel empathy for Zeus, she knew Zeus was kind and didn’t deserve to be treated like that. At this, anger burned inside of Aphrodite for Hera and what she did to hurt Zeus, and as this anger burned she felt a passion. Aphrodite casually began to develop feelings for Zeus. She always told herself she shouldn’t, that Zeus was married and she needed to stay away, but she couldn’t help how she felt for Zeus.

Especially after Io’s entrance and the recount of her story, Hera seems more like a jealous wife than the noble queen she is presented as in Hesiod’s work. Her attitude towards Io is blamed on Zeus, who has not only provoked Hera’s actions but is her husband and thus responsible for Hera, as it was customary in ancient Greece.

Greek mythology has been passed on and retold over generations. Literature and movies have been created to entertain as well as provide specific themes based off of myths. There are many heroes that mythology talks about and each one has lived an epic life, but there is one famous hero that has been immortalized throughout history. Hercules is the son of Zeus and a mortal named Alcmene. Zeus impregnated her while her husband was away and this is where his story began. Zeus' wife, Hera, found out about the affair and was outrageous about his careless actions. She tried to prevent Hercules' birth; however, when that didn't work she sent snakes to kill the baby. Hercules was too mighty for the snakes and strangled them before they could even hurt him. As stated in this source, "Hera remained angry. How could she get even? Hera knew that she would lose in a fight, and that she wasn't powerful enough to prevent Zeus from having his way. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Hercules' life as miserable as she could" (Crane WEB). Hercules grew up to be a great young warrior and was all around. With this god-like strength, also came an uncontrollable temper that made him react at times without thinking, but later made him realize the wrongdoings of his violence. He later then married a woman named Megara and had two beautiful children. But one day, Hera instilled a fit of rage into Hercules and made him slaughter his family with his very own hands. He was shocked by his actions and asked Apollo for assistance since he was drowning in guilt. Apollo later then gave him specific tasks to help Hercules redeem himself for the bloodshed he caused. The hero was sent to Eurystheus, and under his strict hand, he was to accomplish twelve labors over the next twelve years.

Hera, the Greek goddess of childbirth and marriage, was the wife and sister of Zeus. She was the Queen of Olympian Deities. People knew her as the most beautiful and powerful goddess, but she had a bad side to her.

Hera, he had countless affairs and many children. His father, who he overthrew, was Cronos, and his mother was Rheas. He had five siblings, Poseidon and Hades, who he divided the realms with, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia. He was married to his sister, Hera, and had four children with her, Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe, Enyo, Eris, Angelos, and Hephaestus. Other gods that he had children with were Demeter, who gave birth to Persephone; Dione, who gave birth to Aphrodite; Eurynome, who gave birth to the Charities (Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia), and 23 other gods who bore him around 35 other children. While he had many affairs with gods, he had even more with mortals. A few of the many were Electra, who gave birth to Dardanus, Harmonia, and Iasius; Europa who gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthys, Alagonia, Carnus, Dodon, and Sarpedon; and Leda, who gave birth to Polydeuces and Helen. He had another 43 affairs with mortals, and at least 54 other children with

Aphrodite was known for having many love affairs. She had an arranged marriage, set up by Zeus, with Hephaestus, the ugliest of the gods. Her true love was Ares, the god of war and violence. Hephaestus knew of the affair and to get back at her, he humiliated her in front of all the gods by setting a trap for the lovers. When the two were about to make love, they were scooped up into a net where all the gods could witness her betrayal. Ares and Aphrodite conceived many children: Eros being the most famous. He is also known as Cupid. (“Aphrodite History”)

Leda was a beautiful maid who attracted Zeus; the mighty God transformed himself into the form of a swan with his divine powers and raped Leda. The outcome of this was the birth of Helen of Troy. The four stanzas reflect upon the actual scene of the rape, where Zeus (as a swan) attacks Leda.

In spite of this, most of the women he had slept with had been raped, including his own wife. Hera had been purposely avoiding her brother, wanting nothing to do with him. He was well aware of this, and while pursuing her had come up with a plan. Zeus transformed himself into a "sad and bedraggled looking cuckoo bird, soaked from a strong downpour"(Pontikis). Hera, pitying the bird, held him up to her heart for warmth and desired to heal him. In this moment, Zeus transformed back into his regular form and raped Hera, who could do nothing in the spontaneity. After this incident, they married out of guilt for the rape and conceived multiple children (Pontikis). Among other victims was the kidnapped Prince Ganymede, whom was taken by Zeus in the form of an eagle. Upon being ddelivered to Mount Olympus, he raped the young boy, and made him his cup-bearer (Leadbetter). As an apology, he did not return the prince to his family, but sent a couple of

The author uses an allusion to question whether Leda knew she was being raped by a God, and would eventually cause the war of Troy. Mythologically, Leda was the princess of Aetolia and married to Tyndareus. Zeus seduced her in the form of a swan, impregnating her with Helen, while Tyndareus impregnated her with Clytemnestra at the same time. Helen was the main cause of the Trojan war and Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon along with Aegisthus. The poem questions if Leda knew that she was being raped by Zeus.

Zeus was known for a number of things, but his love affairs was one of the numerous things he was famous for. Zeus was the king of all the gods, he was known for the god of the skies, weather, fate and laws. Out of all of his lovers he had over the years, his first was known as Aphrodite. She was the goddess of beauty and was followed by Zeus when she first emerged from the great sea, but she managed to escape him. It did not take much time for Zeus’ wife Hera to realize that their marriage was falling into the deep end. Zeus had a deep lust which then made Hera’s jealousy fester. (Summary 1).

Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalytical theories on the unconscious mind, which is where he believed myth to be derived from. His ideas can be used to incorporate a common theme in every myth. This universal idea was in male-female relationships. He believed there to be a power struggle among every relationship: male-female, male-male, and female-female. Freud's explanation for this was that everyone had a mother and father, therefore the subconscious possessed these psychological ideas about sexuality. In applying these ideas to the myth of Io, there is the obvious sexual relationship between Io and Zeus. Zeus, as the king of the gods, is in a place of immense power and Io is inferior to him. According to Freud, Io's submission to Zeus is unconsciously an act to replicate a father-daughter relationship. The daughter is subconsciously sexually attracted to her father and acts out on this desire. Looking at the relationship between Io and Hera, the sexual tension turns to competition. The older wife is jealous of the younger, attractive

Hermaphroditus is the child of Zeus, Aphrodite, Athene, and Poseidon, and therefore cursed with being its own lover (Sharman-Burke and Greene 82). In addition to these incestuous relationships, are relationships that Zeus has with his children. For example, Dionysus is attached to his thigh.