Leda and the Swan: Bestiality in the Ancient World

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 or rapes Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus of Sparta. She subsequently bears two children from Zeus, Helen (who later becomes Helen of Troy) and Polydeuces (Pollux, one of the Dioscuri) and two children from Tyndareus, Castor (the other Dioscuri) and Clytemnestra. Castor, being the son of a human male, was mortal while Pollux, being a son of Zeus, was immortal.  But Pollux asked to share his immortality with his half brother so each spent half their time in Hades while the other communed with gods on Olympus.

Their unusual conception was just one of several Greek myths in which Zeus seduced or abducted favored mortals while in the form of an animal.  These other tales included Europa and the bull and Ganymede and the eagle.  

Various classical writers recorded that bestiality was common in "other" cultures. Herodotus as well as Pindar, Strabo and Plutarch alleged Egyptian women engaged in sexual relations with goats for religious and magical purposes – the animal aspects of Egyptian deities being particularly alien to the Greco-Roman world. Hittite law mandated the death penalty for intercourse with animals, excluding horses and mules (violators were instead barred from the priesthood and from approaching the king). Likewise,  the Abrahamic religions imposed the death penalty on both the person and animal involved in an act of bestiality. I always view the creation of a law as something needed to prohibit behavior deemed unfavorable that is actually occurring.  

Plutarch, though Greek himself, and Virgil, too, make similar accusations of bestiality among the Greeks, with Plutarch writing in his "Discourse on the Reason of Beasts" that the Greeks committed "very frequently and in many places great outrages, disorders and scandals against nature, in the matter of this pleasure of love, for there are men who have loved she-goats, sows and mares." 

There is some indication that violent sexual encounters, like other mythological scenarios, were acted out as punitive entertainments in the Roman arena. Nero is supposed to have enjoyed a form of bondage with either male or female partners in which he dressed in animal skins to reenact a wild animal attacking a condemned prisoner as frequently occurred in the arena. Cassius Dio also relates how a prostitute pretended to be a leopard for the gratification of a senator. However, such activity was generally viewed by the Romans as undesirable behavior, much like pederasty. But that did not seem to diminish their appreciation of the myth as Leda and the Swan were popular subjects on ceramics and as inspiration for sculpture as well.

Bronze Roman oil lamp in the form of a swan with either Castor and Pollux or Helen and Pollux emerging from its feathers. The children were fathered by Zeus, who took the form of a swan to impregnate their mother Leda.  Now in the Karak Museum in Jordan, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Michael Gunther.

Leda and the Swan (Roman, CE 1-100) at the Getty Villa, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Dave and Margie Hill Kleerup

Red-figure Vessel with Leda and the Swan (Greek, Apulia 330 BCE) - Leda with the Swan, as Hypnos enchants her, at the Getty Villa , courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Dave and Margie Hill Kleerup.

Red-figure Vessel with Leda and the Swan (Greek, Apulia 330 BCE) - Leda with the Swan, as Hypnos enchants her, at the Getty Villa , courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Dave and Margie Hill Kleerup.

Mosaic depicting Leda and the Swan, once the central panel (emblema) of a mosaic floor discovered in the vicinity of the Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaipafos, late 2nd - early 3rd century CE, Palaepaphos Museum, Cyprus, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Leda with cupid, Roman, 1st century CE, head from Antonia Minor, c. 35 CE, at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, Italy courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Daderot.

Fresco depicting Leda and the swan, from Pompeii, 50-79 CE, Naples National Archaeological Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Reproduction of Leda and the Swan from the Late Hadrianic period courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Mongolo1984.

Leda and Swan, Roman work 2nd century CE after Greek work of the first half of the 4th century BCE, by Timotheus at the Prado Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Caracas1830 (white balance adjusted)

Roman fresco of Leda and the Swan from the Villa Arianna at Stabiae in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

 

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The Tinas Cliniar: Dioscuri of the Etruscans

These bronze handles have the distinctive shape associated with a type of krater made in Vulci and exported to Etruscan settlements as far away as Spina in Northern Italy. The youths wearing winged boots and holding the bridles of their horses are almost certainly the twin gods, Castur and Pultuce (Roman: Castor and Pollux), the sons of Zeus. The two are known in Etruscan as Tinas Cliniar and as the Roman Dioscuri although in Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini (literally "twins") or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarid.

In Homer's Iliad, Castor, the horse breaker, and Polydeuces, the boxer, are brothers to Helen of Troy and are both mortals who have died. ("... there are two commanders I do not see, / Castor the horse breaker and the boxer / Polydeuces, my brothers ...") – Helen, Iliad 3.253–255 But, as described by Pindar, the two, born of the same mother, were only half-brothers, however. Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. The pair were thus thought to be an example of "heteropaternal superfecundation" or the fertilization of two ova by two different fathers. The divinely conceived Pollux was immortal while his half-brother, Castor, was not. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, so Zeus transformed them into the constellation, Gemini.

The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire. They were also associated with horsemanship, in keeping with their origin as the Indo-European horse twins. Their role as horsemen and boxers also led to them being regarded as the patrons of athletes and athletic contests. They characteristically intervened at the moment of crisis, aiding those who honored or trusted them. Those not honoring them properly, however, could be punished. Cicero tells the story of how Simonides of Ceos was rebuked by Scopas, his patron, for devoting too much space to praising Castor and Pollux in an ode celebrating Scopas' victory in a chariot race. Shortly afterwards, Simonides was told that two young men wished to speak to him. After he had left the banqueting room, the roof fell in and crushed Scopas and his guests.

Hence, the Romans, ever mindful of the importance of pietas, built a temple to the Dioscuri in the Forum. It was constructed by the Roman general Aulus Postumius following his victory over the Latins at the Battle of Lake Regillus in 484 BCE.

"During the battle two young men riding white horses were said to have appeared and guided the Romans to victory and then were seen again after the battle watering their horses at the Juturna Spring in Rome, hence the subsequent dedication to the famous cavalry twins and choice of location for the temple next to the fountain in the Forum. Every 15th of July the temple was the focus of a cavalry parade - the transvectio - of 5,000 men led by two impersonators of the heroes who commemorated the victory at Regillus." - Ancient History Encyclopedia

The heavily restored iconic statues of Castor and Pollux that flank the entrance to the Capitoline Museum in Rome incorporate fragments found at the original site of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum.

Images: (1-2) Etruscan Bronze handles from a large volute-krater (vase for mixing wine and water) depicting Castor and Pollux ca. 500–475 BCE courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their divine nature is indicated by their winged boots and the pair, with oval-shaped eyes, wear unbelted short tunics and a hair style often seen on individuals reclining atop Etruscan funerary urns.

Pair of Roman statuettes also depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen, but here they appear heroically nude, with longer Hellenistic hairstyles and their characteristic skull caps. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

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