Now, I could be wrong on this, and I have no sources to back me up, but maybe someone out there does... but I seem to recall hearing that in some cases it was rape, and in some cases "rape" and "seduce" were thrown about in an equal light. As in, Mr. Man's virgin daughter got "raped" by Zeus, but the only "rape" that happened was that they had sex and she, being an unmarried virgin, had the stigma of rape assigned to what they did. If that makes sense.
This is a good point. I never thought to consider the difficulties of translation. Is "rape" an accurate term? Does our understanding of rape today apply to the situations in the Greek myths?
I think at least in some instances it must. Again, my knowledge is scant, but I recall instances where the women Zeus pursued protested/ran away/did everything in their power to avoid his lustful advances. And got changed into phragmites or somesuch for their resistance. Or somesuch.
OK, I may be totally mangling Greek myth, but isn't the constellation Aquila (in which the star Altair sits), the Eagle, chasing the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, across the sky because some maiden or goddess became a swan in order to better elude Zeus in eagle form?