Leto
Leto is the Titaness who, pregnant by Zeus, is driven across the world by Hera's refusal to let her give birth on any land that receives the sun, and who finally delivers Apollo and Artemis on the floating island of Delos after it is anchored.
Her two centres are Delos and Lycia, and the Delian birth story is told with local variations in which Ortygia, the anchoring of the island and the length of the labour all shift. Roman Latona is identified with her, and the Latin telling tends to make her a background figure to her twins; the modern habit of listing her only as mother of Apollo and Artemis repeats that flattening.
Correspondences
- Planetary Correspondence
- Moon
Offerings
- Offerings
- MilkHoneyOlive oilWhite flowersA refuge given to someone
Sacred timing
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- LatonaLeto of DelosLeto of LyciaThe Mother of the Twins
- Gender Expression
- Feminine
- Titles
- Mother of Apollo and ArtemisLady of DelosThe Gentle OneShe Who Wandered
- Symbols
- Palm treeThe floating islandThe double birthThe veilThe wolf
Practice
- Invocation Approach
- ToneQuiet and steadfastAddressLetoMother of the TwinsLady of DelosRelationshipThe refuge that was refused and then grantedWarningHer myth is about being turned away do not repeat itResonanceMothers those in need of shelter those who have been refused
- Modern Practice
Leto is called on by mothers, by anyone turned away while in need, and at a birth that has become a search for a safe place. The practice is to give refuge, and the offering is the one you would want given to you.
Nature and meaning
- Domain
- MotherhoodChildbirthThe protection of childrenRefugeWanderingThe palm and the springDelos
- Mythology Summary
Leto is the Titaness who, pregnant by Zeus, is driven across the world by Hera's refusal to let her give birth on any land that receives the sun, and who finally delivers Apollo and Artemis on the floating island of Delos after it is anchored. The refused-water episode in Lycia, where she turns the peasants into frogs, is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses 6.317-381; in the Iliad she heals Aeneas (5.445) and faces Hermes in the theomachy (21.497-504). She is a mother but not a passive one: the Niobe story ends with her children killing Niobe's, and the cruelty of that is hers as much as her twins'. Delos became one of the great sanctuaries of the Greek world because of her.
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