Leda and the swan
Leda and the swanThe Big Bad Swan
In nature, there are many amazing and bizarre acts. Take, for example, the Preying Mantis. The Preying Mantis is a relatively large insect that performs a most barbaric act: after the docile and exquisite female mates with her aggressive and overpowering male counterpart, she eats him. Instinctively, the powerful male seeks out his mate and impregnates her, fulfilling his mating duties. However, the male expends all of his strength in the sexual encounter, and the female is able to return the animal favor by ruthlessly eating the unsuspecting male limb by limb. Clearly, things are not what they might initially seem to be in nature, as in this case the seemingly mighty male is abruptly destroyed by his sexual victim. Much along the same lines is Yeats’ “Leda and the Swan.” Using the binary oppositions of the beauty and viciousness of Zeus as a swan and the helplessness and eventual strength of Leda, Yeats reveals that even the mightiest entities may suffer the consequences of their misuse of power.
Picture swans in your mind. You see the snow white feathers, the piercing eyes, and the powerful wings. These are extraordinary creatures often used to signify love and tenderness. On the surface, they appear tranquil and docile, yet their physical attributes are only a facade for their truly mean spirit. Swans are rather territorial animals who tend to be quite nasty when confronted with an undesirable situation. In “Leda and the Swan,” the beauty of the swan is skin-deep as well. Despite having the glorious physical attributes of a swan he is also a vicious brute who acts out his male animalistic power over his female prey, demonstrating the raw male and female relationships in nature. Swan are huge birds, and as pointed out in the Internet site “The Swan and Leda” (a poem on the same subject as “Leda and the Swan”) “Swans, unlike most birds, have external genitals” (1). Thus, the swan is a perfect animal for such a hideous crime as Zeus performs on Leda.
In further developing the underlying repercussion theme, the basis of the poem must be analyzed. In Greek Mythology, Zeus disguises himself as a swan in order to lure the pure and sexually ripe Leda into violence. Critical Survey of Poetry, edited by Frank N. Magill, says, “In the tale from antiquity, a Spartan Queen, Leda, was so beautiful that Zeus, ruler of the Gods, decided that he must have her. Since the immortals usually did not present themselves to humankind in their divine forms, Zeus changed himself into a great swan and in that shape ravished the helpless girl” (3716). Zeus as the swan is described as being “great” and of “feathered glory” (lines 1-6). He is a terrific product of nature, yet his male sexual tendencies get the better of him, and...
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