there are many variations to the myth of leda and the swan. leda is sometimes called nemesis and other times they are two separate people. leda was married to the king of sparta, tyndareus. she is the mother of several children though she is most known for giving birth to clytemnestra, helen, pollux, and castor. the most common myth claims that zeus transformed himself into a swan to couple with leda. some versions claim that she loved zeus and willing had sexual relations with him, while other versions claim she was seduced and therefore was not willing. that same night, she coupled with tyndareus also. leda then gave birth to four children at the same time. the two pairs of twins resulted in helen and pollux belonging to zeus, and clytemnestra and castor belonging to tyndareus. though each pair is attributed to either zeus or tyndareus, each man is said to be the father of all four children. castor and pollux were called the dioscuri meaning “zeus’s sons,” even though castor was mortal because he was the son of tyndareus and pollux was immortal because he was the son of zeus.