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HelpRe: Leda / Letha*
in reply to a message by Ottilie
Wikipedia claims he "seduced" her, but that's really not the way I learned it in school (not even close). I think it really depends on the version of the story, and people back in those times/cultures really didn't have the same understanding of consent we do today.
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I'm going to discuss this with a friend who is much more educated on the matter than I, but I'm wondering if "raped" should be taken as literally and in the way a modern audience, such as all of us, takes it.
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"Raped" did often mean something more like "carried off" back in the day, but when I say she was raped in the version of the story I read, it wasn't that the text included that word; it was the details of what was happening, how it was described, and the fact that she was clearly trying to resist him while he continued to persist (biting at the back of her neck with his bill, pawing at her thighs with his feet, beating at her with his wings), and the sense was that even in the form of a swan he still had strength to overpower her.
This was over ten years ago that I was in university, so I might not remember it all 100% correctly, but I do not believe my opinion could ever change on this particular telling of the story. Other versions of course could paint the encounter quite differently, and since the myths were often changed drastically from one telling to the next, that's also valid.
This was over ten years ago that I was in university, so I might not remember it all 100% correctly, but I do not believe my opinion could ever change on this particular telling of the story. Other versions of course could paint the encounter quite differently, and since the myths were often changed drastically from one telling to the next, that's also valid.
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Ah, thank you for the information on this! I really appreciate it :)
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