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Leda And The Swan
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Leda and the Swan
The Big Bad Swan In nature, there are many amazing and bizarre acts. Take, for example, the Preying Mantis. The Preying Mantis is a relatively large insect that performs a most barbaric act: after the docile and exquisite female mates with her aggressive and overpowering male counterpart, she eats him. Instinctively, the powerful male seeks out his mate and impregnates her, fulfilling his mating duties. However, the male expends all of his strength in the sexual encounter, and the female is able to return the animal favor by ruthlessly eating the unsuspecting male limb by limb. Clearly, things are not what they might initially seem to be in nature, as in this case the seemingly mighty male is abruptly destroyed by his sexual victim. Much along the same lines is Yeats’ "Leda and the Swan." Using the binary oppositions of the beauty and viciousness of Zeus as a swan and the helplessness and eventual strength of Leda, Yeats reveals that even the mightiest entities may suffer the consequences of their misuse of power. Picture swans in your mind. You see the snow white feathers, the piercing eyes, and the powerful wings. These are extraordinary creatures often used to signify love and tenderness. On the surface, they appear tranquil and docile, yet their physical attributes are only a facade for their truly mean spirit. Swans are rather territorial animals who tend to be quite nasty when confronted with an undesirable situation. In "...
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