Editing Leda and the Swan

{{short description|Theme from Greek mythology}}
{{About|the story and its depictions||Leda and the Swan (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
[[File:Statue of Leda and the Swan - Getty Museum (70.AA.110).jpg|thumb|right|200px|<small>"...this statue is a first-century Roman version of an earlier Greek statue from the 300s B.C. attributed to Timotheos. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive, attesting to the theme's popularity among the Romans. ...Both arms, most of the outstretched cloak, the swan's head, and the folds of cloth between Leda's legs are eighteenth-century restorations. The head, though ancient, is not original to this work, but comes from a statue of Venus".</small><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103SQA |title=Statue of Leda and the Swan |author=J. Paul Getty Museum|website=Getty|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|access-date=14 March 2023}}</ref> Marble. [[Getty Villa]]]]
[[File:Da michelangelo, leda e il cigno, post 1530 (national gallery) 01.jpg|thumb|right|''Leda and the Swan'', a 16th-century [[Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)|copy after a lost painting]] by [[Michelangelo]] ([[National Gallery, London]])]]
[[File:Leda and the swan, terracotta Roman oil lamp 1st century AD, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich (8958396304).jpg|thumb|[[Ancient Roman pottery#Lamps|Roman oil lamp]], 1st century AD]] 
'''Leda and the Swan''' is a story and subject in art from [[Greek mythology]] in which the god [[Zeus]], in the form of a [[swan]], seduces [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], a Spartan queen. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] and [[Castor and Polydeuces|Polydeuces]], children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing [[Castor and Polydeuces|Castor]] and [[Clytemnestra]], children of her husband [[Tyndareus]], the King of [[Sparta]]. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and slept with Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King [[Tyndareus]]. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched.<ref>The idea that the semen of more than one male might influence pregnancy, a feature in the origin myth of [[Theseus]], is called [[Telegony (pregnancy)|telegony]]; it retained scientific followers until the late nineteenth century.</ref> In other versions, Helen is a daughter of [[Nemesis]], the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of [[Hubris]].

Especially in art, the degree of consent by Leda to the relationship seems to vary considerably; there are numerous depictions, for example by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], that show Leda affectionately embracing the swan, as their children play.

The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to [[Timotheus (sculptor)|Timotheus]] (''compare illustration, below left''); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses,<ref>Bull p. 167. See for example a marble relief with the Swan, grasping the back of Leda's neck with his beak, excavated in Argos, [[Peloponnese]], Greece, from 50–100 AD [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00102/AN00102484_001_l.jpg in the British Museum]; See External links for other examples</ref> in [[cameo (carving)|cameo]]s and [[engraved gem]]s, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of [[Ovid]] and [[Fabius Planciades Fulgentius|Fulgentius]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fulgentius|first1=Fabuis Planciades|title=The Fable of the Swan and Leda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73mJIuYfmzEC&pg=PA78|publisher=Ohio State University Press|page=78|isbn=978-0-8142-0162-6|year=1971}}</ref> it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with [[erotic art|erotic overtones]], in the Italian Renaissance.

==Eroticism==
[[Image:Leda and Zeus (Swan).jpg|thumb|''Leda and the Swan'', Roman marble possibly reflecting a lost work by [[Timotheus (sculptor)|Timotheos]] from the 300s BCE. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive. restored ([[Prado]])]]

The historian [[Procopius]] claims, in his Secret History, that the [[List of Roman and Byzantine empresses|Roman Empress]] [[Theodora (wife of Justinian I)|Theodora]] acted in a reproduction of this particular myth at some point in her youth in the early sixth century CE prior to her becoming the empress. This account is heavily disputed for the biases Roman aristocrats including Procopius had towards the role of women and the reputation of actresses and sex workers at the time.

The subject undoubtedly owed its 16th-century popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man. The earliest depictions show the pair love-making with some explicitness—more so than in any depictions of a human pair made by artists of high quality in the same period.<ref>Bull p 167</ref>

The fate of the erotic album ''[[I Modi]]'' some years later shows why this was so. The theme remained a dangerous one in the Renaissance, as the fates of the three best known paintings on the subject demonstrate. The earliest depictions were all in the more private medium of the [[old master print]], and mostly from Venice.  They were often based on the extremely brief account in the ''Metamorphoses'' of [[Ovid]] (who does not imply a rape), though [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] had both a Roman sarcophagus and an [[engraved gems|antique carved gem]] of the subject, both with reclining Ledas.<ref>Bull p167</ref>

The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many [[woodcut]] illustrations to ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', a book published in [[Venice]] in 1499. This shows Leda and the Swan making love with gusto, despite being on top of a triumphal car, being pulled along and surrounded by a considerable crowd.<ref>[http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-books/HP/hyp166.htm Page 166 – Hypnerotomachia Poliphili<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by [[Giovanni Battista Palumba]], also shows the couple in [[coitus]], but in deserted countryside.<ref>[[:File:Palumba leda swan.jpg|Photo of the print]]</ref> Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many to [[Giulio Campagnola]], shows a love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bodkinprints.co.uk/product.php?id=38 |title=Leda and the Swan |publisher=Bodkin Prints |first=Giulio |last=Campagnola |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413192242/http://www.bodkinprints.co.uk/product.php?id=38 |archive-date=13 April 2013 }}</ref><ref>Not a woodcut, as Bull (p169) wrongly says (see Hind BM catalogue, The Illustrated [[Bartsch]] etc); nor is his view of Leda's expression the only one.</ref> Palumba made another engraving, perhaps in about 1512, presumably influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children.<ref>[[:File:Palumba ledafamily.jpg|British Museum copy]]; [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Poets_Lovers_Heroes/lovers_05_51.623.3.R.asp The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Special Exhibitions: Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

There were also significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts, also private media. [[Benvenuto Cellini]] made a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, and [[Antonio Abondio]] one on the [[obverse]] of a medal celebrating a Roman [[courtesan]].<ref>[http://www.nga.gov.au/international/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=66251&Orient=Verso Abondio, NGA Washington]</ref>

==In painting==
{{See also|Leda and the Swan (Leonardo)}}
[[Image:Leda and the Swan 1505-1510.jpg|thumb|[[Leda and the Swan (Wilton House)|''Leda and the Swan'']], copy by [[Cesare da Sesto]] after a lost original by [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]], 1515–1520, Oil on canvas, [[Wilton House]], England.]]
A fresco depicting the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan was unearthed at the Pompeii archeological site.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/fresco-erotic-pompeii-leda-and-swan-intl/index.html | title=Fresco depicting erotic scene uncovered in Pompeii ruins | newspaper=CNN | date=20 November 2018 | last1=Regan | first1=Helen }}</ref>

[[Leonardo da Vinci]] began making studies in 1504 for a painting, apparently never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. In 1508, he painted a [[Leda and the Swan (Leonardo)|different composition of the subject]], with a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins (also nude), and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, possibly deliberately destroyed, and was last recorded in the French royal [[Château de Fontainebleau]] in 1625 by [[Cassiano dal Pozzo]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-hunt-leonardo-lost-leda-swan-2448071|title=The Hunt: Was Leonardo's 'Leda and the Swan' Lost, or Never Completed?|first=Vittoria|last=Benzine|website=Artnet|date=8 April 2024}}</ref> However it is known from many copies, of which the earliest are probably the [[Leda and the Swan (Uffizi)|''Spiridon Leda'']], perhaps by a studio assistant and now in the [[Uffizi]],<ref>[[:File:Leda Melzi Uffizi.jpg|image]]; Fossi, Gloria, pp. 402–3, ''Uffizi: art, history, collections'', Giunti Editore Firenze Italy, 2004, {{ISBN|88-09-03676-X}}, 9788809036765 [https://books.google.com/books?id=oNE3ofu8psMC&dq=Spiridon+Leda&pg=PA402 google books]</ref> and the one at [[Leda and the Swan (Wilton House)|Wilton House]] in the United Kingdom (illustrated).

Also lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, is [[Michelangelo]]'s tempera [[Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)|painting of the pair]] making love, commissioned in 1529 by [[Alfonso I d'Este|Alfonso d'Este]] for his palazzo in [[Ferrara]], and taken to France for the royal collection in 1532; it was at [[Château de Fontainebleau|Fontainebleau]] in 1536. Michelangelo's [[cartoon]] for the work—given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533—survived for over a century.  This composition is known from many copies, including an [[:commons:File:Cornelis Bos - Leda and the Swan - WGA2486.jpg|ambitious engraving]] by [[Cornelis Bos]], c. 1563; the marble sculpture by [[Bartolomeo Ammanati]] in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] on his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the [[National Gallery, London]].<ref>Elfriede R. Knauer, "Leda." ''Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 11'' (1969:5–35) illustrates several copies as well as an engraving of a Roman bas-relief and examples of antique engraved gems that seem to have provided Micelangelo's inspiration and gives a full bibliography of Michelangelo's ''Leda''.</ref> The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] tendencies of elongation and twisted pose (the ''[[figura serpentinata]]'') that were popular at the time. In addition, a sculptural group, similar to the Prado Roman group illustrated, was believed until at least the 19th century to be by Michelangelo.<ref>It belonged to [[John Everett Millais]] and was included in his 2007 [[Tate Britain]] exhibition. Now London, attributed to a 16th-century "follower of Michelangelo".</ref>

[[File:Correggio.jpg|thumb|''[[Leda and the Swan (Correggio)|Leda and the Swan]]'' by [[Correggio]]]]
The last very famous Renaissance painting of the subject is [[Antonio da Correggio|Correggio]]'s elaborate composition of c. 1530 (Berlin); this too was damaged whilst in the [[Orléans collection|collection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]], the Regent of France in the minority of [[Louis XV]].  His son [[Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Orléans|Louis]], though a great lover of painting, had periodic crises of conscience about his way of life, in one of which he attacked the figure of Leda with a knife. The damage has been repaired, though full restoration to the original condition was not possible. Both the Leonardo and Michelangelo paintings also disappeared when in the collection of the French Royal Family, and are believed to have been destroyed by more moralistic widows or successors of their owners.<ref>Bull 169.</ref>

There were many other depictions in the Renaissance, including cycles of book illustrations to Ovid, but most were derivative of the compositions mentioned above.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/ho_1982.60.11.htm Bacchiacca (Francesco d'Ubertino): Leda and the Swan | Work of Art | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France—Northern versions are rare.<ref>Bull 170.</ref> After something of a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very sensuous [[François Boucher|Boucher]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/anc_bou_leda.html |title=Leda and the Swan<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=10 March 2007 |archive-date=8 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408200710/http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/anc_bou_leda.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with many [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] and [[Expressionist]] treatments.
[[Image:Oleksa Novakivsky 28.jpg|thumb|[[Oleksa Novakivskyi]]'s ''Leda and the Swan'', Ukraine]]

Also from that era were sculptures of the theme by [[Antonin Mercié]] and [[Max Klinger]].<ref>Dijkstra, Bram, Idols of Perversity, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986 p.315</ref>

[[Image:Paul Cezanne Leda au cygne.jpg|thumb|right|[[Paul Cézanne]]'s ''Leda and the Swan''<ref>Now in the [[Barnes Foundation|Barnes Foundation Collection]], [[Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania|Merion, Pennsylvania]] has been dated as early as 1868 and as late as 1886–1890; the best estimate is 1880–1882; ''Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern''. New York: Knopf, 1993. 106.</ref>]]

==In modern and contemporary art==
[[Cy Twombly]] executed an abstract version of ''Leda and the Swan'' in 1962. It was purchased by [[Larry Gagosian]] for $52.9&nbsp;million at Christie's May 2017 Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/gagosian-pays-52-9m-twombly-fritz-cat-smashes-comic-art-record-fresh-news/ |title=Leda and the Swan |author=Cy Twombly|date=8 September 2023 }}</ref>

Avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren along with other members of the [[Viennese Actionism|Viennese Actionist]] movement, including [[Otto Muehl]] and [[Hermann Nitsch]], made a film-performance called ''7/64 Leda und der Schwan'' in 1964. The film retains the classical motif, portraying, for most of its duration, a young woman embracing a swan.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}

There is a life-sized marble statue of ''Leda and the Swan'' at the [[Jai Vilas Palace|Jai Vilas Palace Museum]] in [[Gwalior]], Northern [[Madhya Pradesh]], India.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jiwaji Rao Scindia Museum – Collection|url=http://jaivilasmuseum.org/Collection.html|access-date=11 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211184502/http://jaivilasmuseum.org/Collection.html|archive-date=11 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

American artist and photographer [[Carole Harmel]] created the "Bird" series (1983), a Jean Cocteau-influenced collection of photographs that explored the "Leda and the Swan" myth in tightly cropped, voyeuristic images of a nude female and an undefinable birdlike creature hinting at intimacy.<ref name="Pieszak2">Pieszak, Devonna. "Carole Harmel", Catalogue essay, Chicago: Galerija, 1983.</ref><ref name="Bone">Bone, James. "Art Facts: a mix of media on Wells Street", ''Chicago Reader'', 11 March 1983.</ref>

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery currently exhibits Karl Weschke's ''Leda and the Swan'', painted in 1986.  The [[Winnipeg Art Gallery]] in Canada has, in its permanent collection, a ceramic "Leda and the Swan" by Japanese-born American artist [[Akio Takamori]]. [[Genieve Figgis]] painted her version of Leda and the Swan in 2018 after an earlier work by [[François Boucher]]. Figgis’ contemporary version reinvents the idyllic romantic scene of lavish playfulness with a dark humor creating a scene of profanity and horror.<ref name=mdpi>{{cite journal |title= Being So Caught up: Exploring Religious Projection and Ethical Appeal in Leda and the Swan
|last= Chen |first= Xi |publisher= MDPI |date= February 5, 2021 |journal= Religions |volume= 12
|issue= 2
|page= 107
|doi= 10.3390/rel12020107
|language=en-US|doi-access= free
}}</ref><ref name="methoduspi">{{cite web|title=Leda and the Swan Theme |url=http://www.methoduspi.com.br/journal/35dca8-leda-and-the-swan-theme|date=October 2, 2020|website=methoduspi.com.br |language=en-US|access-date=October 3, 2020}}</ref> There is a sculpture in neon lights depicting Leda and the Swan in Berlin, near Sonnenallee metro station and the Estrel hotel, designed by [[AES+F]].  Photographer [[Charlie White (artist)|Charlie White]] included a portrait of Leda in his "And Jeopardize the Integrity of the Hull" series. Zeus, as the swan, only appears metaphorically.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}

==In poetry==
[[File:Leda mosaic crop.jpg|thumb|right|A mosaic from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Palea Paphos [[Cyprus]]. Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. Around 3rd century AD]]
[[Ronsard]] wrote a poem on ''La Défloration de Lède'', perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. He imagines the beak going into Leda's mouth.<ref>Bull p.169; [https://oeuvresderonsard.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/de-la-defloration-de-lede-odes-320/ the poem, in French and English]</ref>

"Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet by [[William Butler Yeats]] composed in 1923 and first published in the ''Dial'' in [[1923 in poetry|June, 1924]], and later published in the collection 'The Cat the Moon and Certain Poems' in 1924.  Combining [[psychological realism]] with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape of [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]]. It also alludes to the [[Trojan War]], which will be provoked by the abduction of [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], who will be begotten by Zeus on Leda (along with [[Castor and Pollux]], in some versions of the myth). [[Clytaemnestra]], who killed her husband, [[Agamemnon]], leader of the Greeks at Troy, was also supposed to have hatched from one of Leda's eggs. The poem is regularly praised as one of Yeats's masterpieces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bloom|first=Harold|title=Yeats|publisher=Oxford UP|year=1972|pages=363–66|isbn=978-0-19-501603-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vqpspMiPWLgC&pg=PA363}}</ref> [[Camille Paglia]], who called the poem "the greatest poem of the twentieth century," and said "all human beings, like Leda, are caught up moment by moment in the 'white rush' of experience. For Yeats, the only salvation is the shapeliness and stillness of art."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paglia|first=Camille|title=Break, Blow, Burn|publisher=Random House|year=2006|pages=114–18|isbn=978-0-375-72539-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNZ_LYCGSPsC&pg=PA114}}</ref>  See external links for a bas relief arranged in the position as described by Yeats.

Nicaraguan poet [[Rubén Darío]]'s 1892 poem "Leda" contains an oblique description of the rape, watched over by the god [[Pan (god)|Pan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Darío|first=Rubén|author2=Andrew Hurley |author3=Greg Simon |author4=Steven F. White |title=Selected Writings: Ruben Dario|editor=Ilan Stavans|publisher=Penguin|year=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings00dari/page/20 20]–21|isbn=978-0-14-303936-5|url=https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings00dari|url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[H.D.]] (Hilda Doolittle) also wrote a poem called "Leda" in 1919, suggested to be from the perspective of Leda. The description of the sexual action going on makes it seem almost beautiful, as if Leda had given her consent.

In the song "Power and Glory" from [[Lou Reed]]'s 1992 album ''[[Magic and Loss]]'', Reed recalls the experience of seeing his friend dying of cancer and makes reference to the myth:
{{Poemquote|
I saw [[isotope]]s introduced into his lungs
trying to stop the cancerous spread
And it made me think of Leda and The Swan
and gold being made from lead<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-lou-reeds-magic/149553421/ |title=Lou Reed's 'Magic and Loss' a requiem that leads to hope |first=Ed |last=Bumgardner |newspaper=[[Winston-Salem Journal]] |pages=50, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/winston-salem-journal-lou-reeds-magic/149553442/ 51] |date=1992-01-25 |access-date=2024-06-17 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>}}

[[Sylvia Plath]] alludes to the myth in her [[radio play]] ''Three Women'' written for the [[BBC]] in 1962. The play features the voices of three women. The first is a married woman who keeps her baby. The second is a secretary who suffers a miscarriage. The third voice, a student who is pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption, mentions "the great swan, with its terrible look,/ Coming at me,/ There is a snake in swans./ He glided by; his eye had a black meaning." and repeats a refrain of "I wasn't ready" stating "the face/ Went on shaping itself with love, as if I was ready." describing the unwanted pregnancy.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://voegelinview.com/misunderstood-motherhood-the-poetry-of-sylvia-plath-and-sharon-olds/|title=Misunderstood Motherhood: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds|date=4 August 2023|first=Jessica|last=Wills|magazine=VoegelinView}}</ref>

==In literature==
[[File:Leda and the Swan by Jean-Leon Gerome.jpg|thumb|''Leda and the Swan'' by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]], 1895]]

Several references to the myth are presented in novels by [[Angela Carter]], including ''[[Nights at the Circus]]'' and ''[[The Magic Toyshop]]''. In the latter novel, the myth is brought to life in the form of a performance in which a frightened young girl is forced to act as Leda in accompaniment with a large mechanical swan.

The myth is also mentioned in [[Richard Yates (novelist)|Richard Yates]]' 1962 novel ''[[Revolutionary Road]]''. The character Frank Wheeler, married to April Wheeler, after having had sex with an office secretary ponders what to say as he is leaving: "Did the swan apologize to Leda? Did an eagle apologize? Did a lion apologize? Hell no!"<ref>Third Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 2008, pg106</ref>

In [[J. K. Rowling|Robert Galbraith]]'s 2020 novel, ''[[Troubled Blood]]'', one of the main characters, Robin Ellacott, visits a painting gallery where she sees a painting of Leda and the swan done by one character who is an artist in the novel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Troubled Blood {{!}} Latest Crime Novel By Robert Galbraith |url=https://robert-galbraith.com/stories/troubled-blood/ |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=robert-galbraith.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> Furthermore, the other protagonist of the Strike series, the eponymous detective Cormoran Strike, was born to a mother named Leda and swans appear in several of the novels.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Lindsay |title=Swans |url=https://thesefilespod.com/blog/swans-part-1/ |access-date=February 22, 2024 |website=The Strike and Ellacot Files|date=9 June 2022 }}</ref>

== In fashion ==
[[File:20140416 corfu239.JPG|thumb|''Leda and the Swan'' statue from [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]] in [[Corfu]], [[Greece]].]]

In 1935, German-born movie star [[Marlene Dietrich]] wore a dramatically designed Leda costume to a Hollywood costume party. Designed by the acclaimed costume designer [[Travis Banton]], a longtime Dietrich collaborator, the white tulle and feather dress featured a thigh-slit, a mid-length train and, most characteristically, a fabric and feather "swan" neck which coiled around Dietrich's own neck, as well a pair of large feathered wings, one stretching downwards across her chest and the other one upwards across her left shoulder.<ref>{{cite web | title = This Was Hollywood [@thiswashollywood | date = March 10, 2020 | url = https://www.instagram.com/p/B9kFMmQAsU4/?igshid=16l8o2ndth503&epik=dj0yJnU9Y2lueEpURWREeVZidDVXZGVsVGdhOWd5T0pPQllkYzImcD0wJm49akFJNFFSdnlrMFdaUnRaQzlrVEJjUSZ0PUFBQUFBR0hMUUZz}}</ref>

Sixty-six years later, at the 2001 Academy Awards, Icelandic singer [[Björk]] wore a dress by Marjan Pejoski in nude mesh and a white tulle skirt. The skirt gradually narrowed upwards over the torso to turn into a swan-neck made out of fabric which coiled around the wearer's neck in exactly the same way as Dietrich's dress from 1935. Although Dietrich's costume remains largely unknown to the general public, Björk's dress "attained cult status instantly"<ref>Gopaldas, A. (2021, June 22). ''An up-close look at the savoir-faire behind the swan dress from Dior Cruise 2022''. Vogue Singapore. https://vogue.sg/dior-swan-dress/</ref> and became an icon of [[Red carpet fashion|red carpet culture]]. Yet, the reference to Marlene Dietrich's costume was rarely (if ever) mentioned at the time.

In June 2021, [[Maria Grazia Chiuri]] as creative director for the French fashion house [[Dior]], designed a collection strongly inspired by Hellenistic culture, the [[Olympic Games]], and Ancient Greek Mythology, and showed it at the [[Panathenaic Stadium]] in [[Athens]] as an homage to the Olympic tradition (the collection was shown a month before the beginning of the [[2020 Summer Olympics]]). The collection's closing [[pièce de résistance]] was a Leda-inspired swan dress. The immediate visual similarity between Chiuri's swan Dress and Björk's [[swan dress]] sparked excitement on social media as most people inevitably thought the Dior dress was directly inspired by Pejoski's iconic 2001 creation. However, only a few days later, Dior openly defended the inspiration of the dress referring to it on its Twitter account as a recreation of a costume worn by Marlene Dietrich, who was, famously, an important and loyal client of the French brand during the 40s and 50s.<ref>Dior. (2021, June 21) Endless meters of white tulle [...]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/dior/status/1407081359496167428</ref> Notably, Chiuri's 2021 Dior dress featured feathered swan-wings spanning over the chest and shoulder. This dramatic detail, taken directly from Dietrich's costume from 1935, sets Chiuri's dress for Dior entirely apart from Björk's red-carpet dress, and makes it, irrefutably, a reference to Dietrich's costume, and by extension, to the myth of Leda and the Swan.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

==In modern media==
[[File:Las Incantadas (Louvre) Leda.jpg|thumb|right|Leda column of [[Las Incantadas]], [[Louvre]].]]

A version of the Leda and the Swan story is the foundation myth in the Canadian futuristic thriller television series ''[[Orphan Black]]'' which aired over 5 seasons from 2013 to 2017. A corporation uses genetic engineering to create a series of female clones (Leda) and a series of male clones (Castor) who are also brothers and sisters clones as they derive from one mother who is a chimera with male and female genomes.{{cn|date=December 2022}}

Musical artist [[Hozier (musician)|Hozier]] released the single [[Swan upon Leda|Swan Upon Leda]] in 2022, referencing the myth as a tool to advocate for reproductive rights.<ref>{{Cite web |title='Swan Upon Leda' Review: For Hozier, Oppression and Resistance are Mythical and Mundane {{!}} Arts {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/1/hozier-swan-upon-leda-single-cover-art-review/ |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}</ref>

The 2021 wordless, 3D feature film Leda transports the myth to dark forests and deep lakes that surround a mid-19th-century mansion.<ref>Richard Kuipers, Sydney Film Festival</ref> Directed by Samuel Tressler IV and starring [[Adeline Thery]], the story focuses on a pregnant Leda, nightmarishly haunted by the image of a swan and lost between dream and reality in a state of trauma.

== In commerce ==
The Philadelphia cigar maker Bobrow Brothers made a brand of cigars with the name "Leda" which was sold at least into the 1940s. The cigar label depicted Leda and the Swan in a river.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SXwbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA401 |last=U.S. Patent Office |title=Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office |publisher=U.S. Patent Office |year=1949 |location=United States |pages=401 |language=English |access-date=2024-06-17 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Modern censorship==
In April 2012 an art gallery in London, England, was instructed by the police to remove a modern exhibit of Leda and the Swan.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9232512/Mythical-swan-photo-taken-down-after-bestiality-fears.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Hannah | last=Furness | title='Mythical' swan photo taken down after 'bestiality' fears | date=28 April 2012}}</ref> The law concerned was [[Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008]], condemning "violent pornography", brought in by the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] government of 2005–2010.<ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/4/section/63 UK Legislative] </ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:0 Léda et Zeus métamorphosé en cygne - Musei Capitolini (1).JPG|''Leda and Zeus transformed into a swan''. A 2nd century BCE Roman version of an earlier Greek statue attributed to Timotheos from the 300s BCE. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive. Palazzo Nuovo (Capitoline Museums), Rome. 
File:Leda and the Swan, Pompeian fresco.jpg|''Leda and the Swan'', ancient fresco from [[Pompeii]]
Image:Leda Melzi Uffizi.jpg|''Leda and the Swan'' copy by Giovanni Francesco Melzi after the lost painting by [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]], 1508–1515, oil on canvas, [[Uffizi|Galleria degli Uffizi]], [[Florence]], [[Italy]].
File:Cornelis Bos - Leda and the Swan - WGA2486.jpg|Drawing by [[Cornelis Bos]] after the lost original by [[Michelangelo]]. Between 1530 and 1550
File:Leda y el cisne (Pencz).jpg|''Leda and the Swan''. [[Georg Pencz]]
File:Benvenuto cellini, leda e il cigno.JPG|''Leda and the Swan'' by [[Benvenuto Cellini]]
File:Leda and the Swan, by Massimiliano Soldani, 11364501.jpg|''Leda and the Swan'', by Massimiliano Soldani, 1725
File:Attribué à François Boucher, Léda et le Cygne (vers 1740).jpg|Attributed to [[François Boucher]], 1740, oil on canvas.
File:Leda y el cisne.jpg|''Leda and the Swan'', charcoal, gouache on paper. ([[Ulpiano Checa]])
File:Leda and the Swan by Fernando Botero.jpg|alt=Leda and the Swan by Fernando Botero|''Leda and the Swan'' by Fernando Botero, 1996
File:Genieve Figgis Leda and the Swan (after Boucher) 2018 23x31 inches Acrylic in canvas 37kB.JPEG|[[Genieve Figgis]], ''Leda and the Swan (after Boucher)'', 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 23 x 31 inches
File:Egg on Pefnos island.jpg|Egg sculpture on [[Pefnos]], 2020, by Yiannis Gouzos and Petros Themelis.<ref>{{cite web|date=August 25, 2020|title=The monument of the Dioscuri in Stoupa was inaugurated|url=https://www.in.gr/2020/08/25/culture/texni/egkainiastike-mnimeio-ton-dioskouron-stin-stoupa/|website=www.in.gr|language=el}}</ref>
 
</gallery>

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, {{ISBN|0-19-521923-6}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |last1=Medlicott |first1=R. W. |title=Leda and the Swan—An Analysis of the Theme in Myth and Art |journal=Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry |volume=4 |issue=1 |publisher=Sage Journals |pages=15–23 |language=en |doi=10.3109/00048677009159303 |pmid=4107336 |date=1 March 1970|s2cid=25346766 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Leda and the Swan}}
* [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae2.html#77 Version of Leda and the Swan myth, in the "Fabulae" of Hyginus]
*[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/notes.html Ovid Illustrated – large site from the University of Virginia, where many depictions of Leda and the Swan from Renaissance and later editions of the Metamorphoses will (eventually) be found.]
*[http://d-sites.net/english/yeats.htm Yeats' "Leda and the Swan": an image's coming of age]
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000239 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Leda and the Swan)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081226224628/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=14945&handle=li Greek vase from the Getty]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090101133726/http://www.samuelson.co.uk/blog/?p=407 Samuelson blog with thoughts and pictures]
*[http://www.museiciviciveneziani.it/frame.asp?id=2341&musid=112 16th century Venetian painting by Il Padovanino]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070228073059/http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K1.11.html Alternative detail view of the Getty vase]
*[http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=7639 Roman statue from the Getty]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081226224922/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=113647 Baroque bronze from the Getty]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070211115257/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/ledaandtheswan.asp Sculpture c 1900]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090126022229/http://www.zeinalov.com/htm/e/erotic/leda_01.htm ''Leda and the swan'' – Bronze miniature]
*[http://beckydaroff.com/stories/details.php?recordID=186 ''Leda and the Swan'', by Tintoretto, from the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence; explore other depictions of ''Leda and the Swan'' and compare to similar themes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325174841/http://beckydaroff.com/stories/details.php?recordID=186 |date=25 March 2012 }}
* {{cite web
 |publisher   = [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]
 |url         = http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/stories/leda/index.html
 |title       = Leda and the Hat Pin
 |work        = Sculpture
 |access-date  = 24 July 2007
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090310045155/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/stories/leda/index.html
 |archive-date = 10 March 2009
 |df          = dmy-all
}}
*[http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/NorthIndia/Gwalior/LedaSwan.jpg Jai Vilas Palace Museum, Gwalior, India]

{{Michelangelo|painting}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leda and the Swan}}
[[Category:Irish poems]]
[[Category:1924 poems]]
[[Category:Greek myths]]
[[Category:Iconography]]
[[Category:Swans]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]
[[Category:Zoophilia in culture]]
[[Category:Leda (mythology)]]
[[Category:Castor and Pollux]]
[[Category:Zeus]]
[[Category:Helen of Troy]]