According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and seduced Leda on the same night she had slept with her husband. In other versions, she laid two eggs from which the children had hatched from. Contrary from these versions, some believe that Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster which awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris. Following this myth chronologically, Leda was a contemporary of Hercules, who had set her husband Tyndareus on the throne of Sparta. Her mortal sons joined the expedition of the Argonauts and the Kalydonian Boar Hunt, albeit at a very young age, while her daughters, Helene and Klytaimnestra, were wives of Trojan War heroes.
And Ofelia’s brother, with whom Carmen is pregnant, is reminiscent of King Juan Carlos, the current Spanish monarch who endured decades as a seeming enabler and supporter of Franco only to emerge after his death as a full-fledged democrat and saviour of the nation. In the film, Carmen endures a harrowing pregnancy and eventually dies during childbirth. Her son survives at least partly due to the fairy aid that Ofelia provides from night-time forays into
For several months, Athena grew inside of Zeus's head which gave him huge headaches. One day the pain became so unbearable, he finally he ordered Hephaestus, the god of fire, to cut open his head. Just as his head split, out sprung a tall, slim, goddess wearing a suit of armor with the helmet pulled back just enough to reveal her beauty. The manner she made her entrance to the world in, gave her the mark of a warrior goddess. To this day, she is portrayed with her spear in one hand and shield in the other, these objects became her symbols.
The Story of Ceyx and Alcyone is one of beauty and tragedy. Ceyx was the king in Thessaly and son of Lucifer, and Ceyx’s wife, Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, the King of the Winds. The two loved each other devotedly and were seldom apart. Nevertheless, a time came when Ceyx decided he needed to leave his wife and make a long journey across the sea. Alcyone hysterically sobbed and stressed to her husband to not leave, out of fear that her beloved would never return.
In the film, Briseis is the cousin of Paris and Hector, and the niece of King Priam. She is functioning as a priestess of the temple of the god Apollo when it is attacked by the Greeks. She is claimed as a war-prize by Achilles and the two quickly fall in love. After returning with her uncle after he comes and claims the body of Hector, she and Achilles are reunited during the sacking of Troy, during which she kills Agamemnon. After Achilles is mortally wounded by Paris they reaffirm their love, and when he dies she escapes with the rest of her family.
She is so intent on fulfilling her desires that Medea kills her own brother and manipulates the death of a king during their flight from Colchis. Medea refuses to let anything stand in the way of her selfish aspirations. In contrast, Dido is the loyal Queen of Carthage who never desired to love again after the death of her husband Sychaeus. She is forced to fall in love with the Trojan warrior Aeneas by the divine orchestrations of gods Juno, Venus and Cupid. Though her new found love intoxicates and causes her to forsake the duties of ruling, this is not by her design.
Another god, Calypso, was strangely cruel to Odysseus; madly in love with him, she held Odysseus captive for seven years and severely delayed his return home. Only when another god, Hermes, intervened did she consent to release Odysseus. At many times, though, the gods in The Odyssey worked to help Odysseus and other characters. Athena was often coming in disguise to aid Odysseus’ son, appearing in dreams to Odysseus’ wife, or otherwise imploring the gods on Odysseus’ behalf. The great god Zeus, himself, was fond of Odysseus and often sent messengers to aid him.
Athena’s presence is prominent and fundamental in Odysseus’ journey; this great goddess saves Odysseus an exuberance of grievances, ranging from the shipwreck early in the poem to the battle of the suitors towards the end. Despite fighting for Odysseus’ freedom for twenty years, and aiding him in his homecoming in a matter of days, there is a crucial moment where Athena remains inactive. Prior to his release from Ogygia, Calypso’s island, Odysseus encountered a series of devastating events. One of many is in the sun god, Helios’ island, whereby Odysseus’ crew devoured the god’s cattle despite previous warnings. In this scene Athena inconveniently chooses to remain inactive, causing an abundance of tribulation.
It is said the beautiful Sirens use their enchanting voices to lure sailors and make them die. Their beautiful singing will make men forget directions and shipwreck on the rocky coast. Sirens can be found in many Greek stories, especially in Homer's “Odyssey”: “But the sirens charm with their pure song, sitting in their meadow; the shore is full of bones of rotting men, with the skin shrinking around them (Odyssey. I2. 44-46)” Every man who hears Sirens’ singing will have to die, so it is hard to know what Sirens sing from those dead men.
Moreover, as for “Leda and the Swan”, seems even more disturbing than “the Second Coming”. It talks about this certain scene of a young woman being raped by a huge swan. The inspiration is definitely from one of the Greek mythologies of a young woman named Leda being raped by Zeus in disguise of a massive swan. From the rape, Leda becomes pregnant, later laid eggs as babies, and one of them was Helen of Troy who was a central figure of the Trojan War. Yeats uses powerful language to