The Egg that Launched 1000 Ships

I love the concept of this painting as the idea was sparked when I was reading Stephen Fry’s Troy last year.

Before she was Helen of Troy, she was Helen of Sparta.

Before she was Helen of Sparta, she was an egg.

Helen and her siblings (Castor, Clytemnestra, and Pollux) were hatched from an obscure parentage due to their mother Leda’s superfecundity with both her husband Tyndareus, King of Sparta, and Zeus, King of the Gods, in the form of a swan.

I’ve imagined what it would look like for human Leda to incubate her preternatural egg-children. Zeus' absence is felt by the presence of a single lingering swan feather.