Leda
Family: Greeks · Role: mother · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 4
Leda is presented as the mother of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, Helen, Phoebe, Castor, and Pollux. In Agamemnon, she is invoked as the parent of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon; in Iphigenia In Aulis, Clytemnestra and Helen are named among her three daughters with Phoebe. Zeus is associated with her through his swan form and through his nurturing of her and Agamemnon’s boy.
In Helen, Leda is described as the mother of Helen, Castor, and Pollux, but she is already dead: “By th’ ignominious noose is Leda dead Who my imaginary guilt deplored;” She had hanged herself after grieving over Helen’s supposed guilt and disgrace, leaving Helen falsely branded as her murderess.
Relationship record
Life events
- Leda died by hanging after grieving over Helen’s supposed guilt.(Euripides, Helen — Scene 2)
- “By th’ ignominious noose is Leda dead Who my imaginary guilt deplored;”
- Helen was falsely branded as the murderer of Leda.(Euripides, Helen — Scene 2)
- With: Helen
- “And I am deemed her murd’ress, though unjustly, Yet am I branded with this foul reproach;”
- Leda dies by hanging herself, overwhelmed by disgrace over Helen’s supposed marriage.(Euripides, Helen — Scene 5)
- With: Helen
- “Leda is no more. Around her neck she fixed the deadly noose On my account, through my unhappy nuptials O’erwhelmed with foul disgrace.”
Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 4
- child: Clytemnestra “O child of Leda, guardian of my home”
- child: Agamemnon “O child of Leda, guardian of my home”
Euripides, Orestes — Scene 4
- with Zeus (The passage places Leda together with Jove and refers to Jove's twin-born children, but does not specify a controlled relationship between Leda and Jove.) “For he used to nurture me when I was little, and satiated me with many kisses, dandling in his arms Agamemnon's boy, and Leda with him, honoring me no less than the twin-born of Jove.”
Euripides, Orestes — Scene 9
- child: Helen “on account of that form of the hapless, hapless Helen, born from a bird, the offspring of the beauteous Leda in shape of a swan”
Euripides, Iphigenia In Aulis — Scene 1
- parent: Thestius “To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phœbe, and Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen.”
- child: Phoebe “To Leda, daughter of Thestias, were born three virgins, Phœbe, and Clytæmnestra my spouse, and Helen.”
Euripides, Iphigenia In Aulis — Scene 5
- child: Helen “Through thee [forsooth,] the offspring of the long-necked swan, if indeed the report is true, that Leda † met with a winged bird, when the body of Jove was transformed, and then in the tablets of the muses fables spread these reports among men, inopportunely, and in vain.”
Euripides, Iphigenia In Tauris — Scene 3
- child: Helen “Helen, the dear daughter of Leda”
Euripides, Helen — Scene 1
- with Zeus (Jove assumed the form of a swan and united with Leda.) “To my mother Leda Jove was borne On rapid wings, the figure of a swan, Assuming, and by treachery gained admission To her embraces”
Euripides, Helen — Scene 2
- child: Castor “Your mother is no more, through you unblest Are Jove’s twin sons.”
- child: Pollux “Your mother is no more, through you unblest Are Jove’s twin sons.”
Euripides, Helen — Scene 5
- child: Helen “But alas! what woes / Thence visited our wretched house! ah mother! / Ah me! / MEN. What sayst thou? / HEL. Leda is no more.”
Euripides, Helen — Scene 11
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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.