Leda's Rape

Chaos Theory claims that “something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. It may take a very long time, but the connection is real”(Wolfe). In “Leda and the Swan” by William Butler Yeats, Leda is raped by the Greek God Zeus, who has transformed himself into a swan. The rape leads to the birth of four children, the two immortals, Castor and Pollux, and most importantly the two mortals, Helen and Clytemnestra, who one day have a great impact on what is now known as southeastern Europe. Though Leda’s rape may be seen as a small incident when compared to occurrences in the world, it results in the Trojan War, Agamemnon’s death and the ultimate formation of the Roman Empire. These events may have happened long after the rape, but they are undeniably connected. …show more content…
Overcome with her beauty, and his passion for Helen, Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, secreted Helen away to Troy. This infuriated Helen’s husband Menelaus, the King of Sparta, and thus it ignited a war between the Achaeans (Greeks) and the Trojans. Yeats writes, “The broken wall, the burning roof and tower” (3.10) which suggests that since Zeus had raped Leda, the final result was the Trojan war, brought on by the prominence of their daughter. In the article, “Helen of Troy”, Margaret R. Scherer provides a brief biography of Helen’s life and emphasizes that “she became the immediate and most famous cause of the Trojan War” (369). Scherer suggests that had Zeus not raped Leda, the Trojan War would not have