Leda and Zeus in the image of a swan by Francois Boucher

Painting of the French painter Francois Boucher “Leda and Zeus in the image of a swan”. The size of the picture is 60 x 74 cm, canvas, oil. Boucher created several paintings on this mythological plot, one of them frankly erotic. Leda, in Greek mythology, the spouse of Spartan king Tyndareus.

According to the most widespread version of the myth, was the daughter of King Aetolia Festia, who gave her Tindarya as a reward for helping in the war. God the Thunderer Zeus, captivated by the beauty of Leda, took possession of her, turning into a swan. According to one version, from this connection appeared Elena, as well as the Dioscuri. Clytemnestra was considered the daughter of Tindarya.

According to another version, Leda saved an egg, which was carried away by the goddess Nemesis from a marriage with Zeus, when a beautiful girl appeared from the egg, called Elena and raised her as her daughter. The myth of Leda and the swan was very popular in ancient art, medieval miniature book, in painting and plastic of the Renaissance and later. There is also a version that the word Leda is nothing more than the one found in the Lycian inscriptions Λαδα – the wife, the woman, the word of the Karian-Lelleg root.