in fabulous history, a daughter of King Theopius and Eurythemis, who married Tyndarus king of Sparta. She was seen bathing in the river Eurotas by Jupiter, when she was some few days advanced in her pregnancy, and the god, struck with her beauty, resolved to deceive her. He persuaded Venus to change herself into an eagle, while he assumed the form of a swan, and after this metamorphosis Jupiter, as if fearful of the tyrannical cruelty of the bird of prey, fled through the air into the arms of Leda, who willingly sheltered the trembling swan from the assaults of his superior enemy. The cares with which the naked Leda received the swan, enabled Jupiter to avail himself of his situation, and nine months after this adventure the wife of Tyndarus brought forth two eggs, of one of which sprung Pollux and Helena, and of the other Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were deemed the offspring of Jupiter, and the others claimed Tyndarus for their father. Some mythologists attribute this amour to Nemesis and not to Leda; and they farther mention, that Leda was intrusted with the education of the children which sprung from the eggs brought forth by Nemesis. To reconcile this diversity of opinions, others maintain that Leda received the name of Nemesis after death. Homer and Hesiod make no mention of the metamorphosis of Jupiter into a swan, whence some have imagined that the fable was unknown to those two ancient poets, and probably invented since their age.