This is the story in Greek Mythology where Zeus is taken over by the beautiful mortal named Leda. He believes that with her beauty she is teasing him, and he takes the form of a swan and rapes her.How can a god such as Zeus who has power and immortality be so taken over by this mortal?
Gods seem to be the equivalent to humans who have no limits, fears, or morals. A life any mortal would die to have (no pun intended). Perhaps the gods too are curious and often tempted by the opposite side of immortality.
This poem by William Yeats and picture by Michelangelo may help to visualize.
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
-William Yeats
2 comments:
i think that these poets are on to something powerful for us to look at.
i think we need to all take a look at "paradise lost" by john milton.
I have a hard time reading Paradise Lost but I do appreciate the humanizing of the devil. His struggle becomes all too human.
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