“Leda and the Swan” is an adaptation of a Classical Greek myth, which has remained a popular theme for artists and writers alike over many centuries since antiquity. In Greek mythology, Leda is the Queen of Sparta, a powerful Greek city-state. Stricken by her beauty, Zeus, the king of the gods, decides to have sex with her. He disguises himself in the form of a swan in order to approach her without being detected. The following encounter has been variously interpreted by different artists and authors: Some depict the encounter as a seduction, while others—such as Yeats in “Leda and the Swan”— depict it as an act of rape. Their sexual consummation results in a pregnancy, with Leda giving birth to a daughter, Helen.

As someone partially divine, Helen grows up to have extraordinary beauty. During a visit to Sparta, a Trojan prince named Paris sees Helen while visiting with her husband, King Menelaus, and falls in love with her. In some versions of the myth, Paris abducts Helen against her will, but in most versions of the myth, she falls in love with him and goes willingly with him to Troy. Her act of infidelity and Paris’s betrayal of friendship enrages Menelaus, who recruits his brother, King Agamemnon, and other Greek kings to wage war against Troy.