Leto

Leto was a Titan goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the mother by Zeus of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis. Hesiod calls her gentle, kind to mortals and immortals alike, “the mildest in all Olympus” (Hesiod, Theogony 404–410). Her sister was Asteria, and her story is chiefly that of her wanderings before the birth of her children.

Leto’s Pregnancy

Leto became pregnant by Zeus (Hesiod, Theogony 918–920). The jealous Hera made her labour difficult. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Leto is in the pains of labour for nine days and nine nights, and all the goddesses are with her except Hera. Hera sits on Olympus under golden clouds, and keeps Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, from finding out about it, because she is jealous that Leto is about to bear a strong and blameless son (Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 89–101).

Leto Wandering

Before this, Leto went from land to land seeking a place to give birth. The Homeric Hymn lists the places that she visited, and none of them dared to receive her (Hymn 3.30–50). In Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos, Hera raged against the women who bore children to Zeus and above all against Leto, and she set two watchers over the earth: Ares on Mount Haemus in Thrace and Iris on Mount Mimas (Callimachus, Hymn 4).

The Latin writer Hyginus adds that the great serpent Python, a son of Earth who gave oracles on Mount Parnassus, was fated to be destroyed by Leto’s child. When Python learned that Leto was pregnant by Zeus, he began to hunt her down, and Hera had ruled that she must give birth where the sun did not shine. At Zeus’ order the North Wind lifted her up and carried her to Poseidon, who hid her on the island of Ortygia, covering it with waves. When Python failed to find her and went back to Parnassus, Poseidon raised the island again; it was afterwards called Delos (Hyginus, Fabulae 140).

Leto’s Children - Artemis and Apollo

Delos accepted her, and the Homeric Hymn tells how Leto bore Apollo there, kneeling on the soft meadow with her arms around a palm tree, while the goddesses cried out. Iris, sent by the goddesses with the promise of a golden necklace nine cubits long, had brought Eileithyia without Hera knowing (Hymn 3.102–119). The Hymn says that Artemis was born on Ortygia and Apollo on Delos (Hymn 3.14–18). Apollodorus says instead that Leto came to Delos, bore Artemis first and, with Artemis’ help as midwife, then gave birth to Apollo (Apollodorus, Library 1.4.1). Hesiod simply says Leto bore “Apollo and Artemis who delights in arrows” to Zeus, children more lovely than any other of the Uranian gods (Theogony 918–920).

Ovid tells of Leto’s later wanderings with the babies in Lycia. When the peasants stopped her from drinking at a pool and stirred up the mud with their feet, she prayed that they would live in the water for ever; they were turned into frogs (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.313–381).

Apollo and Artemis protecting Leto

Her children both became archers and protected their mother. Hyginus says that on the fourth day after he was born, Apollo went to Parnassus and killed Python with his arrows to avenge her (Hyginus, Fabulae 140); the Homeric Hymn tells of Apollo’s killing of the dragoness at Delphi in a separate episode (Hymn 3.300–304).

The giant Tityus attacked Leto when she was on her way to Pytho. In Apollodorus’ account Tityus, a son of Zeus and Elare, was drawn to her by lust and seized her, and she called her children, who shot him down. He is punished in the Underworld: Apollodorus says vultures eat his heart (Library 1.4.1), and in the Odyssey Odysseus sees two vultures tearing at his liver, because he assaulted Leto (Odyssey 11.576–581).

Niobe

Niobe boasted that she was more blessed with children than Leto, because Leto had borne only two. Apollo and Artemis then killed Niobe’s children (Iliad 24.602–609). Homer counts six sons and six daughters. Apollodorus counts seven sons and seven daughters; Artemis shot the daughters in the house and Apollo the sons while they hunted on Cithaeron, and in his account Chloris, the elder daughter, who later married Neleus, survived with one brother (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.6; compare Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.146–312).

Leto returns to Olympus

As mother of the archer god Apollo, Leto had a place of honour on Olympus. When Apollo enters Zeus’ house all the gods tremble and spring from their seats, but Leto stays beside Zeus, unstrings his bow, closes his quiver and hangs the bow on a golden peg; then she leads him to a throne, and Zeus gives him nectar (Hymn 3.1–13).

When Apollo killed the Cyclopes (or, according to Pherecydes, their sons) because Zeus had killed Asclepius, Zeus would have thrown Apollo into Tartarus, but at Leto’s intercession he ordered him to serve a mortal for a year instead (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.4). In the Iliad she fights on the Trojan side: Hermes is set against her (Iliad 20.72) but refuses to fight her (Iliad 21.497–501), Leto and Artemis heal the wounded Aeneas in the great sanctuary at Pergamos after Apollo has carried him there (Iliad 5.445–448), and she picks up Artemis’ bow and arrows after Hera has beaten Artemis (Iliad 21.502–504).

Leto Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 404–410, 918–920; Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3) 1–18, 30–50, 89–126, 300–304; Callimachus, Hymn to Delos (4); Homer, Iliad 5.445–448, 20.72, 21.497–504, 24.602–609 and Odyssey 11.576–581; Apollodorus, Library 1.4.1, 3.5.6, 3.10.4; Hyginus, Fabulae 140; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.146–381.

See Also: Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Apollo, Coeus, Phoebe, Niobe, Python, Delos, Iris