What is "leda"

Leda and similar may refer to:

Leda ( ; ), also known as , is a prograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by Charles T. Kowal at the Mount Palomar Observatory on September 14, 1974, after three nights' worth of photographic plates had been taken (September 11 through 13; Leda appears on all of them). It was named after Leda, who was a lover of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Jupiter (who came to her in the form of a swan). Kowal suggested the name and the IAU endorsed it in 1975.

Leda belongs to the Himalia group, five moons orbiting between 11 and 13 Gm from Jupiter at an inclination of about 27.5°. The orbital elements given here are as of January 2000, but they are continuously changing due to solar and planetary perturbations.

In Greek mythology, Leda (; ) was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of king Tyndareus (Τυνδάρεως) of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan. She was the mother of Helen (Ἑλένη) of Troy, Clytemnestra (Κλυταιμνήστρα), and Castor and Pollux (Κάστωρ καὶ Πολυδεύκης'', also spelled Kastor and Polydeuces).

Leda was admired by Zeus, who seduced her in the guise of a swan. As a swan, Zeus fell into her arms for protection from a pursuing eagle. Their consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in two eggs from which hatched Helen (later known as the beautiful " Helen of Troy"), Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux (also known as the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι)). Which children are the progeny of Tyndareus the mortal king, and which are of Zeus and thus half-immortal, is not consistent among accounts, nor is which child hatched from which egg. The split is almost always half mortal, half divine, although the pairings do not always reflect the children's heritage pairings. Castor and Pollux are sometimes both mortal, sometimes both divine. One consistent point is that if only one of them is immortal, it is Pollux. It is also always stated that Helen is the daughter of Zeus.

Leda also had other daughters by Tyndareus: Timandra (Τιμάνδρα), Phoebe (Φοίβη), and Philonoe (Φιλονόη).

In Homer's Iliad, Helen looks down from the walls of Troy and wonders why she does not see her brothers among the Achaeans. The narrator remarks that they are both already dead and buried back in their homeland of Lacedaemon, thus suggesting that at least in the Homeric tradition, both were mortal.

Another account of the myth states that Nemesis (Νέμεσις) was the mother of Helen, and was also impregnated by Zeus in the guise of a swan. A shepherd found the egg and gave it to Leda, who carefully kept it in a chest until the egg hatched. When the egg hatched, Leda adopted Helen as her daughter. Zeus also commemorated the birth of Helen by creating the constellation Cygnus (Κύκνος), the Swan, in the sky.

Leda and the swan and Leda and the egg were popular subjects in ancient art. In the post- classical arts, it became a potent source of inspiration. It is the subject of William Butler Yeats' poem Leda and the Swan.

Leda is a multiparadigm programming language whose goal is to successfully mix imperative, object-oriented, functional, and logic-based programming features into one language.

It is described in the book Multiparadigm Programming in Leda written by the principal designer Dr. Timothy Budd at Oregon State University.

The Leda is a river in north-western Germany in the state of Lower Saxony. It is a right tributary of the Ems and originates at the confluence of the Sagter Ems and the Soeste (Dreyschloot) near the town of Barßel. The Leda flows into the Ems near the town of Leer. On the southern bank of the Leda, in the Overledingen Land (Overledingen="country over the Leda"), opposite Leer, lies the small settlement of Kloster Muhde (Muhde from the Old Frisian mutha meaning "(river) mouth"). The total length of the river is , of which the lower are navigable for sea-going vessels.

In East Frisia the Sagter Ems, a headstream of the Leda, is also known as the Leda.

Category:Rivers of Lower Saxony Category:Federal waterways in Germany