2007-01-17 05:24:22 · 3 answers · asked by problematicpoet 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
As the above respondent said, Yeats describes the rape of Leda (the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus) by the swan (Zeus).
There's a good piece on it here:
http://www.enotes.com/leda-swan
2007-01-17 07:40:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think the whole poem is an imaginative and speculative recreation of the myth of Leda and the Swan and this final thought simply speculates if the comprehension of the universe of a god, i.e., Zeus (disguised as the Swan), was transferred into Leda by this act of forced copulation.
2016-03-29 01:46:37 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The poem refers to the seduction of Leda, a queen of Sparta, by Zeus in Greek mythology. Zeus often disguised himself as an animal so his wife Hera wouldn't catch him philandering. In this case, he took the form of a swan. From their union came two children, Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Helen caused the Trojan War by running off with Paris, son of the Trojan king. So the "broken wall and burning roof and tower." Clytemnestra married Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, who was one of the Greeks who went off to fight the Trojans. While he was gone, Clytemnestra took a lover. When he came back, she didn't want to give the lover up, so she murdered her husband. So "Agamemnon dead."
Actually, it's more complicated. There were four children. The other two were Castor and Pollux.
2007-01-17 06:16:46 · answer #3 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋