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Re-Tellings of the Myth of Leda and the Swan: a Feminist Perspective

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Re-Tellings of the Myth of Leda and the Swan: a Feminist Perspective Annals of Language and Literature Volume 1, Issue 1, 2017, PP 32-41 Re-tellings of the Myth of Leda and the Swan: A Feminist Perspective Shadi S. Neimneh, Nisreen M. Sawwa, Marwan M. Obeidat Department of English, Hashemite University, Jordan *Corresponding Author: Shadi S. Neimneh, Department of English, Hashemite University, Jordan ABSTRACT This article examines the representation of the myth of “Leda and the Swan” in selected feminist poems by four poetesses, namely Van Duyn's "Leda" (1971), Clifton's Trilogy "Leda 1," "Leda 2," and "Leda 3" (1993), Kossman's "Leda" (1996), and Bentley's "Living Next to Leda" (1996). Common representations of this myth in paintings and literature mainly written by men portray the sexual encounter between Leda and the swan in an ambivalent way, focusing on the vigor of the swan, the hesitation/complicity of Leda, and how their union empowers Leda and results in the birth of Helen. This essentially romanticized; aestheticized version of the myth counters the violation of rape with the glory of the beautiful god-swan and the tacit complaisance of Leda. However, by employing feminist views on rape, violence, and sexual objectification, it is argued that the selected poems directly emphasize Leda's sense of victimization due to being violated by Zeus in the form of a swan without the ambivalence encountered in male versions of the myth like those by W. B. Yeats, Robert, Graves, D. H. Lawrence, and Rainer Maria Rilke. In those feminist revisions, by contrast, Leda's perspective is more dominant. She is adversely affected by Zeus' violent rape, as she is degraded and therefore neither empowered nor endowed with immortality. Moreover, she is abandoned and lonesome, and she is filled with horror as well as helplessness. The last selected poem even shows that Leda has lost her sanity after her rape. It is suggested, therefore, that these detrimental effects of rape on Leda and her deteriorating psychological state are due to being violated by a male deity, and thus Leda has fallen victim to rape as well as patriarchy in such feminist re-tellings of this Greek myth. Such female renderings of the myth, then, challenge prevailing ambivalent or stereotypical representations by fostering a feminist ideology that rejects patriarchal bias or romanticizing attempts. Keywords: Leda and the Swan; Modern Poetry; Sexual Objectification; Victimization; Feminism INTRODUCTION Order, and Myth‖ (1923), T. S. Eliot praises the mythical method employed in James Joyce's In Euripides' Helen, Helen says: novel Ulysses (1922); it involves ―the parallel to "…people tell a story about Zeus... the Odyssey, and the use of appropriate styles and symbols to each division‖ (p.175), as ―a how he once feathered himself into the way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a likeness of a swan, feigned flight from a shape and a significance to the immense pursuing eagle, panorama of futility and anarchy which is lit upon my mother Leda, and won his contemporary history‖ (p.177). Therefore, way with her." (cited in Kossman, 2001, modernists use mythologies because artists are p. 16, emphasis in original) cited as responsible for fixing the problems The use of classical myths like the myth of Leda which the modernist techniques like subjectivity and the swan is remarkably prevalent in the as well as fragmentation bring about. Since modernist and postmodernist period. According postmodernism is an extension of modernism, to W. B. Yeats, art which includes mythology myths are equally used by postmodernists to reflects civilization, as art "seeks to impose give form and order as well. In addition, order and comprehensibility upon the diversity postmodernists draw upon myths because they and chaos of the experiential world" (Thanassa, like to borrow from the past, thus downplaying 2010, p. 114). Also, in his essay ―Ulysses, the idea of originality in the parody and pastiche Annals of Language and Literature V1 ● I1 ● 2017 32 Re-tellings of the Myth of Leda and the Swan: A Feminist Perspective they practice. Importantly, modernists and The swan is generally represented as beautiful in postmodernists employ popular myths to paintings and sculptures, which may wrongly negotiate certain ideologies and further certain suggest that Leda welcomes the swan's sexual ideas. In this sense, such renderings and re- advances despite her victimization (Olga tellings of those myths differ according to their Hughes, 2016). Sometimes she is even depicted take on the myth or the position they are as having a smiling face while receiving the expected to communicate. swan. Leonardo da Vinci’s and Michelangelo’s paintings, for example, portray Leda as "an According to Jenny March (2001), the beautiful inviting nude figure" (White, 2014, p. 4). In woman Helen of Troy in the Greek myth, "over addition, "Leda" (1921) by the American poet whom the Greeks and Trojans warred for ten H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) obviously paints an long years" (p. 457), is said to be the daughter of attractive picture of Zeus represented by his "red Zeus and Leda who is the wife of Tyndareus, a wings" (p. 23, line 3), "soft breast" (line 6), king of Sparta. A princess in Greek mythology, "coral feet" (line 7), and "kingly kiss" (line 24), Leda is said to have seven children: Castor, which makes Leda enjoy the intimate encounter Timandra, Philonoe, Phoebe, and Clytemnestra with him. Thus, on Leda's part there will be no who are fathered by Tyndareus as well as Helen regrets anymore "nor old deep memories / to and Polydeuces, the children of Zeus. Helen was mar the bliss" (lines 26-27). In poetry, there is born from an egg, as Zeus, in the form of a no one unified representation of the encounter swan, has seduced Leda and made her pregnant between Leda and the swan. A number of with Helen. March refers to another myth which modernist poems in the early twentieth century explains the birth of Helen, saying that Nemesis ambivalently portray the swan in different ways, is Helen's mother. Zeus, also in the guise of a focusing on the nature of the swan more than swan, has had sex with Nemesis who has been Leda or romanticizing the act of rape. While in the form of a goose, and an egg has been Hughes argues that ―rape is a violation, a deceit‖ produced, as a result. The egg has been given to since ―[t]here is nothing ambiguous about it‖ Leda by a shepherd, and Leda has put it in a box (2016, para. 1), it is our contention that such a until Helen has hatched out, and thus Leda has claim works better for some versions of this raised Helen as though she has been Helen's myth mainly written by female writers. A biological mother (p. 358). So, it is typical of patriarchal tradition has often portrayed this Zeus in such patriarchal renderings of the myth sexual encounter somewhat ambiguously, to disguise himself before mortal women in highlighting the violence of rape yet trying to order to "trick his unwitting quarry, and to evade justify or beautify it. For example, Rainer Maria his jealous wife, who was always ready to Rilke's "Leda," published in1908, initially suspect him of misbehaviour" (p. 792). stresses the swan's deceptive, treacherous nature March states that Zeus is infatuated with Leda a as well as his apparent lack of self-control: lot, and on the day he has mated with her, he has When the god, yearning, entered the flown "into her arms for protection from a swan, swan splendor shattered him. He let pursuing eagle" (p. 457); Helen has come out of himself vanish within its flesh, the egg produced as a consequence of that completely entangled. Trying to fool her, sexual encounter between Zeus and Leda. though, he was drawn to the act (2001, p. March stresses the popularity of Leda and the 16, lines 1-4) swan, not only in ancient art Before the Common Era but also in postclassical arts like However, Rilke's poem makes Leda unable to painting and literature in which this subject has fully resist the swan's hard attempts to get what become inspiring. For example, the painters he loved, for she is "tangled in resisting him" Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Correggio, but unable to "withhold" any longer (lines 9- Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, Boucher, and 10): "He came at her harder,/ and thrusting his Delacroix, among others, have painted Leda and neck through her hand growing weaker and the swan. In addition, Edmund Spenser's third weaker" (lines 10-11). The consummation of the book of the epic poem The Faerie Queene act makes the swan realize that "feathers were (1590) as well as W. B. Yeats' poem "Leda and glory" (line 13) as he feels himself inside her the Swan" (1923) describe the swan's rape of womb. Therefore, this poem depicts the rape as Leda. Thus, this myth is recurrent in various a glorious act and depicts Leda as succumbing periods and literary genres, including poetry, art, to the swan's will and thus complicit in the and culture. sensual act or simply acquiescent. The ―splendor‖ attributed to the swan (line 3) 33 Annals of Language and Literature V1 ● I1 ● 2017 Re-tellings of the Myth of Leda and the Swan: A Feminist Perspective contributes to the same effect of romanticizing the swan, which "problematizes traditional the rape. Similarly, in "Leda" Robert Graves patriarchal narratives" (p. 10) and goes counter depicts the violence and horror of rape while to the portrayal of Leda as receptive to the fusing those with lust: swan's sexual advances in Leonardo da Vinci’s Heart, with what lonely fears you ached, and Michelangelo’s paintings.
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