Who is Leto, Goddess in Greek Mythology?

Leto is not among the major characters in Greek mythology. In Roman mythology, she is called Latona, influenced by Etruscan Letun.

While many wonders only what is Leto the goddess of, she is still important for several other reasons:

• Leto is the goddess of motherhood, kindness, and modesty. Her name can be translated as 'The invisible one".

• After the birth of her kids, she also became a protectress of the young.

• She is the mother of Artemis and Apollo (Diana and Apollon in Roman mythology) and one of many mistresses (some sources claim they were married) of Zeus. Actually, she was one of his early loves but is now almost forgotten.

• Maybe we don't know much about her because she was too nice. She was a very gentle, according to Hesiod's Theogony the most of all Olympians, granting all wishes she was asked for.

• Being attacked or abused several times, she participated in several crucial episodes of colorful Olympian mythology.

The story of Leto

Leto is a daughter of Titans Coeus and Phoebe. She was Zeus' lover while he was still a bachelor, but was already courting Hera. When Zeus married Hera, Leto was pregnant, what caused jealousy to the newlywed Hera. Hera banished Leto from Olymp and cursed her with a very special spell. No person should help her during pregnancy and no land would give her shelter to give birth. According to Callimachus Ares controlled the land and Iris the island so nobody would give her a hand. On top of that, a serpent-dragon called Python chased her to make her life even more miserable.

Zeus helped Leto by sending her Boreas, god of the North Wind, who carried Leto to the sea. Leto tried to settle on Aegae, Aegina, Aesagea, Arcadia, Athens, Athos, Autocane, Cappatho, Cercyra, Chios, Cilicia, Claros, Cnidos, Corycus, Cos, Crete, Echinades, Eiresiae, Eubea, Ida, Imbros, Ionia, Isthmus, Lemnos, Lesbos, Miletus, Mimas, Mycale, Naxos, Paros, Pelion, Peneus, Peparetheus, Phocaea, Rhenia, Samos, Scyros, Thessaly, but all lands shun her. She was already in labor, suffering great pains when Zeus finally arranged an island called Delos emerged from the sea.

Some sources claim she already gave birth to Artemis on Ortygia, an island created from Leto's sister Asteria, who was also seduced by Zeus and feared the anger of his wife. Others believe Ortygia and Delos was the same island with two names. Delos was believed to be a floating island and a such excluded from Hera's ban.

After the birth of Artemis, things got further complicated with the birth of Apollo. Only whole nine days and nights of painful labor later Apollo was born. It's not completely clear if this happened under the palm or olive tree. Several goddesses were present at his birth, including Amphitrite, Dione, Ichnaea, Rhea, and Themis, but not Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, who was kidnapped by Hera. Artemis helped to deliver her twin brother Apollo and Themis at suckling him because Leto was completely exhausted. This was still not the end of problems for the goddess of motherhood, now finally with children.

Leto and Lycians

When Artemis and Apollo were still babies, they went with Leto to Lycia. It was another inhospitable place for her - Lycia. Leto arrived there craving for a drink of fresh water. when she found it, many countrymen were already there, gathering plants. They forbade her touching the water, threatened the family and even started to stirring up the mud with their feet and hands to make water undrinkable. Then one of the rare instances of Leto's short temper had shown - she transformed them into frogs so 'they could enjoy the water and mud forever'.

Not long after that, a giant called Tityus (Tityos), another illegitimate son of Zeus (with Elara) was sent by Hera to attack Leto. Yet she was not alone and unprotected anymore. Some believe he was killed by arrows of Artemis and Apollo, some say it was Zeus' flash of lightning. Anyway, Leto's children were dead serious about protecting their mother.

Apollo went to Mount Parnassus where he found Python, another enemy of Leto, and slew him. And when Niobe bragged about her children (she had seven boys and seven girls), comparing herself with Leto, who had only one of each, Artemis and Apollo killed them all in a matter of a few seconds.

How many children did Niobe have anyway?

There are several sources about the number of Niobe's kids, varying from five (two boys and three girls) altogether to ten of each gender (with six and seven of each gender being mentioned in the majority of sources). There are also sources claiming one son and one daughter survived the massacre thanks to their prayers to Leto (after all she tried to grant all wishes).

Leto is as actively involved in the Trojan war, together with children siding with the Trojans, as a helper to Galatea, who changed the gender of her daughter Leukippe to male to save the kid's life, and as a helper to Orion who rose among stars. The cult of Leto was widespread in ancient Greece, with temples mostly combined with her children or other goddesses.

Her symbols are dates, griffin, palm tree, rooster, stag, veil, weasel, and wolf.