从文艺复兴开始的绘画、雕塑、诗歌等艺术创作，经常选用希腊神话中的题材。我从众神之神的Zeus说起。Zeus很好色。见到美女就要想尽办法弄到手。各种稀奇古怪的招数使出来之后，就有了故事和后来的艺术题材。
故事一：Zeus变成天鹅
故事题目叫Leda and the Swan。Zeus看上了Leda，变成一只天鹅去引诱她。Leda一看这么漂亮的天鹅，就去搂在怀里亲热起来。。。。。。结果就生了两只鹅蛋出来。其中一只蛋里钻出来一位绝世美女Helen——引发特洛伊战争的那位。此为后话。看看艺术家如何表现这个故事。 
Leda and the Swan, a 16th century copy after a lost painting by Michelangelo (National Gallery, London)。可惜是临摹，真品遗失了。
Leda and the Swan, copy by Cesare Sesto after a lost original by Leonardo, 1515-1520, Oil on canvas, Wilton House, England. 可惜，又是复制品，真迹失传了。 
Correggio. Leda and Swan. c.1531-1532. Oil on canvas. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany. 这位Rococo风格的先驱是这样表现的。
Paul Cezanne's Leda and the Swan, now in the Barnes Foundation Collection, Merion, Pennsylvania has been dated as early as 1868 and as late as 1886-1890; the best estimate is 1880-1882。看看这位被Matisse和Picasso称为 "the father of us all"的艺术家如何展现他的理解
下面这幅是一个叫fred einaudi的艺术家的表达
比较更直接，与他的另一幅异曲同工
接下来是Steven Kenny. Leda and the Swan, 36″ x 48″, Oil on Canvas, 2008
艺术和porno的明确界限在哪里？
读一下Yeats的诗《Leda and the Swan》
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?
飞白的译本：
突然袭击：在踉跄的少女身上，
一双巨翅还在乱扑，一双黑蹼
抚弄她的大腿，鹅喙衔着她的颈项，
他的胸脯紧压她无计脱身的胸脯。
手指啊，被惊呆了，哪还有能力
从松开的腿间推开那白羽的荣耀？
身体呀，翻倒在雪白的灯心草里，
感到的唯有其中那奇异的心跳！
腰股内一阵颤栗．竟从中生出
断垣残壁、城楼上的浓烟烈焰
和阿伽门农之死。
当她被占有之时
当她如此被天空的野蛮热血制服
直到那冷漠的喙把她放开之前，
她是否获取了他的威力，他的知识？
最后一幅是Frederick Leighton创作的Odalisques。Odalisques意指宫女或者三儿。Leda不是三儿，是斯巴达王后。不过谁知道Leighton画宫女时脑子里没有浮现王后的影子呢？或许他觉得王后和宫女本来也没有什么不同:-)
唯美！同样唯美的他画的另一幅The Fisherman and the Syren也贴在这里
Leda and the swan, Bronze sculpture, Bronze and Silver Sculptures by Sculptor Igor Zeinalov
Leda and the Swan (Léda et le cygne), oil painting by Paolo Veronese (1528-88), currently at Palais Fesch, musée des beaux-arts, Ajaccio, France.
Leda and the Swan, c.1570, Jacopo Tintoretto (Robusti), Galleria Degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
