Leda and the Swan

Leda, wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, was mother of four children: Klytaimnestra (later wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae), Helen (of Troy, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and Paris, prince of Troy), and the twin Dioskuroi (Kastor and Polydeukes). Of these, at least Helen and the Dioskuroi were the children not of Tyndareus, but of Zeus, who visited Leda disguised as a swan.

In this composition, Leda cradles the body of the swan (of which only traces survive) under her right arm, while the swan extends his neck to her left breast. Her half-draped body owes much to the exploration of female sexuality in Aphrodite. The original version was cast in bronze in the fourth century BC.