In Greek mythology, Leto (Greek: Λητώ, Λατώ, Lato in Dorian
Greek, etymology and meaning disputed) is a daughter of the
Titans Coeus and Phoebe:[1]. Leto was the titan goddess of
being unseen. Kos claimed her birthplace.[2] In the Olympian
scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins,[3] Apollo and
Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden
beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus. For the classical
Greeks, Leto is scarcely to be conceived apart from being
pregnant and finding a place to be delivered of Apollo and
Artemis, for Hera being jealous, made it so all lands shunned
her. Finally, she finds an island that isn't attached to the
ocean floor so it isn't considered land and she can give
birth.[4] This is her one active mythic role: once Apollo and
Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim[5] and
benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, her part already
played. In Roman mythology, Leto's equivalent is Latona, a
Latinization of her name, influenced by Etruscan Letun.[6]...
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（Λητώ), in Latin LATONA, according to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 406,
921), a daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe, a sister of
Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus, to
whom she was married before Hera. Homer, who likewise calls
her the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus (Il. 1.9,
14.327, 21.499, Od. 11.318, 580), mentions her as the friend
of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks, and in the story
of' Niobe, who paid so dearly for her conduct towards Leto.
(Il. 5.447, 20.40, 72, 24.607; comp. 21.502, Od. 11.580,
Hymn. in Apoll. 45, &c., 89, &c.) In later writers these
elements of her story are variously worked out and
embellished, for they do not describe her as the lawful wife
of Zeus, but merely as a concubine, who was persecuted
during her pregnancy by Hera. (Apollod. 1.4.1; Callim. Hymn.
in Del. 61, &c.; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 232, &c.; Hyg. Fab.
140.) All the world being afraid of receiving her on account
of Hera, she wandered about till she came to the island of
Delos, which was then a floating island, and bore the name
Asteria (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 35, 37, 191); but when Leto
touched it, it suddenly stood still upon four pillars.
(Pind. Fragm. 38; Strab. xi. p.485.) According to Hyginus
(Hyg. Fab. 93,140), Delos was previously called Ortygia,
while Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Κορισσός) mentions a
tradition, according to which Artemis was not born in Delos,
but at Corissus. Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 3.72) relates the
following legends: Zeus changed Leto into a quail (ὄρτυξ),
and in this state she arrived in the floating island, which
was hence called Ortygia; or, Zeus was enamoured with
Asteria, but she being metamorphosed, through her prayers,
into a bird, flew across the sea; she was then changed into
a rock, which, for a long time, lay under the surface of the
sea; but, at the request of Leto, it rose and received Leto,
who was pursued by Python. Leto then gave birth to Apollo,
who slew Python. (Comp. Ant. Lib. 35; Ov. Met. 6.370;
Aristot. HA 6.35; Ath. 15.701; Apollon. 2.707; Iamblich.
Vit. Pyth. 10; Strab. xiv. p.639: in each of these passages
we find the tradition modified in a particular way.) But
notwithstanding the many discrepancies, especially in regard
to the place where Leto gave birth to her children, most
traditions agree in describing Delos as the place. (Callim.
Hymn. in Apoll. init. 59, in Del. 206, 261; Aeschyl. Eum. 9;
Hdt. 2.170.) After the birth of Apollo, his mother not being
able to nurse him, Themis gave him nectar and ambrosia; and
by his birth the island of Delos became sacred, so that
henceforth it was not lawful for any human being to be born
or to die on the island; and every pregnant woman was
conveyed to the neighbouring island of Rheneia, in order not
to pollute Delos. (Strab. x. p.486.)
We shall pass over the various speculations of modern
writers respecting the origin and nature of this divinity,
and shall mention only the most probable, according to which
Leto is " the obscure " or " concealed," not as a physical
power, but as a divinity yet quiescent and invisible, from
whom is issued the visible divinity with all his splendour
and brilliancy. This view is supported by the account of her
genealogy given by Hesiod; and her whole legend seems to
indicate nothing else but the issuing from darkness to
light, and a return from the latter to the former. Leto was
generally worshipped only in conjunction with her children,
as at Megara (Paus. 1.44.2), at Argos (2.21.10), at
Amphigeneia (Strab. viii. p.349), in Lycia (ibid. xiv. p.
665), near Lete in Macedonia (Steph. Byz. s. v. Λήτη), in a
grove near Calynda in Caria (Strab. xiv. p.651), and other
places. (Comp. Hirt. Mythol. Bilderb. Tab. 5.4.) - A
Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology,
William Smith, Ed.
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