Who was Leda?
Leda was a princess of the region called Aetolia. She was a mortal princess whose father was the king of Aetolia named Thestios. Leda married the king of Sparta, Tyndareus, and had many children with him, including Castor and Helen of Troy.
According to Apollodorus, Leda was the daughter of the King of Aetolia Thestios (who lived in the citadel of Thestiea, today Vlochos), one of the seven children he had had from Evrythemis, while according to Hyginus he was the daughter of Thestios and Lefkippi. Euripides calls her "Leda Thestiada" as the daughter of Thestios.
Leda's marriage to Tyndareus is explained by the events in which Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, expelled by their brother Hippocontus, took refuge in the king of Aetolia, Thestios, whom they helped in their fights against his neighboring enemies. daughter of Leda as husband in Tyndareus. The continuation of the myth presents many variations.
Most prevalent, however, is the one in which when Zeus saw her in Taygetos or on the small islet "Pefnon" in front of the chambers, he fell in love with her and asked for the help of the goddess Aphrodite, who transformed him into a Swan taking the same eagle form chasing him. Leda saw them and feeling sympathy for the swan hurried to save him by taking him in her arms. Shortly afterwards, Leda, according to others, laid two eggs. From one came Polydefkis and Eleni (the children of Zeus) and from the other Castor and Clytemnestra (the children of Tyndareus).
Later, this myth of the "spawning of Leda" was intertwined with a similar myth of Nemesis, from which the deification of Leda and its identification with Nemesis was produced.
