Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Today I want to present a coin which depicts one of the most famous myths of ancient times: Leda and the swan. Besides all other erotic adventures of Zeus like Alkmene, Danae, Europa, Io or Ganymed this seems to be the most popular. Thanks to Pete Burbules for the coin! The coin: Bithynia, Nicomedia, Severus Alexander, AD 222-235 AE 20, 4.98g, 19.97mm, 45° Obv.: M AVP CEV AΛEZANΔPOC AVΓ Bust, draped, radiate, r. Rev.: NIKOMHΔ - EΩN ΔIC NEO / KOPΩN (MH and ΩN ligate) Leda, with wreath on her head, nude to hips, with raised r. hand, standing frontal, head turned right to a swan, which is standing left with opened wings and is drawing her garment which she hold with her left hand. Ref.: Receuil General I 3, 557, 316, pl. 96, 22 extremely rare (only 3 ex. known), VZ (this seems to be the nicest!), nice deep green patina Mythology: There are several different versions of Leda and the swan. The most popular has its origin by Euripides: Leda, the daughter of the Aitolian king Thestios and his wife Eurythemis, was the wife of the Lakedaimonian king Tyndareus. Once when she was near the bank of the river Eurotas Zeus approached her in the shape of a swan and united with her. The fruit of this unification was an egg from which Helena, Kastor and Polydeukes arose. Leda after that was received by the gods as Nemesis (Laktanz I, 221; Hyginus, Fabel 77). The marriage with the swan now became complicated because Leda in the same night shared her bed with her husband Tyndareus too. Because of that some saw Tyndareus as father of the twins Kastor and Poldeukes whereas others saw them as sons of Zeus adding - besides Helena - Klytaimnestra too (Homer, Odyss. XI, 299; Ilias III, 426; Euripides, Helena 254, 1497 and 1680). Finely there was another distribution: Kastor and Klytaimnestra as children of Tyndareus, Helena and Polydeukes as children of Zeus (Pindar, Nem.Od. X, 80; Apollodor III, 6-7) Referring to an older myth Zeus fell in love with Nemesis, daughter of the Night and Okeanos, the goddess of just enragement. To escape the pursuit by Zeus she turned into a fish, then in several four-footed animals and at last into a goose. Zeus chased her and was transforming himself too all the time. Finely he took the shape of a swan and raped Leda. This was said to be happened at Rhamnos in Attica. Because of that a big temple was built for Nemesis in Rhamnos. Thereupon Nemesis retired back to Sparta and gave birth to a hycinth-colored egg which was found by Leda. Leda put it into a chest until Helena came out of it who later was so disastrous for mankind by creating the Troyan War. Referring to another story a herdsman found the egg and brought it to the queen, or Hermes threw it into the bosom of Leda who then put it into a drawer until Helena was born from it. It is told too that under the peak of the Taygetos mountain Zeus created with Leda the Dioscuri Kastor and Polydeukes. Dios kuroi, 'the sons of Zeus', was the name of these Lakedaimonian twins and they became the saviors of many human beings especially in battles and on the sea. In a story depicted on some vase pictures they were already youth when their mother bore the egg. When it should be sacrificed to the gods Helena sprung from it. It is told too from two twin eggs. From one the dioscuri were born, from the other Helena, and perhaps Klytaimnestra too the killer of her husband Agamemnon who then was killed by her own son Orestes. The House of Atreids to which Tyndareus and Klytaimnestra belonged was cursed because of the deeds of Tantalos and Atreus. Is is told too about the twins that Polydeukes was immortal but Kastor in contrast mortal. When he had to die the brothers didn't want to part. So both stayed one day together in the underworld the other day with their father Zeus. Klytaimnestra too was mortal in contrast to the Zeus daughter Helena. So it was assumed that she and Kastor were created by Tyndareus who after Zeus joined Leda and by whom she received the second egg. But this story sounds very rationalistic and therefore seems to be younger. Some Background: The flight of Nemesis from Zeus with its constant transformations is a typical fairy motive, called the 'magic flight', which is known from the Tales of Thousand and One Nights or from the 'Puss in Boots'. The egg is an old religious motive and corresponds to the 'World Egg' which here is sunk to the fairy motive of the wunderkind out of the egg. It is the attempt to find a compromise between the tradition of a divine mother with the earthly mother of Helena. The egg of Leda was a particular object of interest in the sanctuary of the Leukippids in Sparta (Pausan. 3, 16, 1). Whereas in the Attic Rhamnos the tradition that Nemesis was the mother of Helena was held on (cult statue of Agrakritos) that tradition was decreasing during the development of the myth in literature and fine arts. If it is actually true that Leda is originating from the Lykian word 'lada' for 'Wife' - for Kerenyi the 'primal wife' - then the myth could have some pre-Hellenic elements. Perhaps Zeus celebrated the Swan Marriage with a goddess who - besides Mother Earth - was the first female being of the world and who therefore was called simply Leda, the 'wife', like Eva in the Christian mythology. An inartificial explanation of the story of Leda I found in the 'Hederich' which I don't want to keep back: "As the meeting of Leda and Zeus was said to be happened at the banks of the river Eurotas where plenty of swans seemed to have existed so some wanted that she has a love affair with a local man and then to hide her dishonour has pretended Zeus has turned into a swan and approached her too close". Nice, isn't it? History of Art: The sculptors preferred at first the meeting of Zeus and Leda in that way, that Leda tries to cover a swan who requests for help from an eagle (Zeus too!) with her left hand by her cloak pressing him against her bosom. Such a statue in the Museo Capitolino in Rome seems to go back to Timotheus 4th century BC. In later times the sculpture has more stressed the erotic aspect. In imperial times the Leda motive is found numerously on intaglios, lamps, sarcophaguses, mosaics and wall paintings. On coins however only this type from Nikomedia is known! Baroque and Renaissance have treated this theme in many versions. On a drawing of Leonardo da Vinci (passed down in a copy only) the nude standing Leda playfully grasps the swan's neck, like already in ancient depictions (silver bucket of Concesti, c.400 BC, Erimitage in St.Petersburg). More catchy is the situation in Michelangelo's painting also known as copy only, see the after-creations of Rosso Fiorentino (1530, London, NG) and Rubens (1603/4, Dresden, AM); here the swan intrudes directly the outstretched resting Leda. The long flexible neck allows some variants of the depiction (Corregio, 1531, Berlin, GG), which by pointing to the private parts of the woman could get a particular insinuating meaning. In the 20th century Bourdelle (Relief, 1904; Paris) and Brancusi (1920; Chicago, Art Institute) have handled this subject. I have attached (1) a pic of the famous mosaic from Paphos on Crete which shows Leda in the same position as on the coin, and (2) the sculpture from the Museo Capitolino in Rome. Sources: (1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon (2) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie, Rowohlt (3) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen, dtv (4) Der kleine Pauly (backgrounds) (5) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst, Reclam Best regards
That's a coin I've never seen before. It's fantastic. The swan looks rather cheeky in some of the images, almost as if it was trying to disrobe Leda.
Not almost as if... the swan is disrobing Leda. That's the story being told by the coin, as Jochen nicely summarized . Another fantastic provincial, Jochen! Thanks for the post.
Another excellent article by Jochen1 ! Of all the Greek myths none have been told more or have inspired more art from ancient times to the present than Leda and the Swan. During the Renaissance period the Roman Catholic Church reviled the myth as erotic blasphemy & with great zeal located & destroyed as many paintings of this subject as they could find. Leonardo da Vinci was a target of the Pope after completing two paintings of this famous myth. Leonardo's versions of Leda and the Swan, both show a nude Leda cuddling a swan with four large broken eggs on the ground with babies emerging from the fragments . Both of these paintings were copied before the Church had them destroyed . The most famous version is shown below in a copy by Caesare da Sesto, circa 1510. About 15 years ago I bought a small collection of Chinese snuff bottles from a collector in Rochester, NY. I sold all the bottles from that group except the one pictured below. It is 3.5 inches tall & painted on the inside thru a small opening at the top of the bottle with a version of Leonardo's painting as seen above. The Chinese mastered this mystifying technique during the 19th century, & the best of these bottles could take up to a month to complete. My bottle was made in the 2nd half of the 20th century by a gifted Chinese student of Western art. The back side of the bottle has a painting of Venus & Cupid.
