Tyndareus – Leda – Zeus

Agamemnon - Klytemnestra Helen - Menelaus

Leda and Zeus as a Swan

Coreggio, Leda with the Swan (1531-32)

Cesare da Sesto,

Leda and the Swan (16th c.)

From lost original by DaVinci

Anonymous, copy of a lost original by Michelangelo

Salvador Dali, Leda Atomica

(1949)

Penelope Klytemnestra Helen

Preserves her oikos destroys her oikos destroys her oikos AND

entire nations

The “Model” Wife The “Bad” Wife The “Angel of Death”

Loyal, faithful Disloyal, deceitful Disloyal, yet absolutely

irresistible

Nemesis and the Dioskouroi (ca 330-310 BCE)

The Destructive power of eros in fifth-century Athenian Tragedy

• Medea: kills her own children to spite her husband (Jason) who no longer returns her love.

• Deianeira: (unknowingly) kills her husband (Herakles) in her attempt to regain his love.

• Phaedra: kills herself and causes the death of her stepson (Hippolytos) out of desperate passion.