Leto, Latona
"Leto was daughter of the Titans Coios and Phoebe. In Homer she appears as one of the wives of Zeus, and there occur no traces of enmity between her and…
From: Unknown To: 1838 C.E.
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“Leto,” from The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy by Thomas Keightley, 1838.
Chapter VIII
Leto:—Phoebos-Apollo, Artemis
Leto, Latona.
Leto was daughter of the Titans Coios and Phoebe. In Homer she appears as one of the wives of Zeus, and there occur no traces of enmity between her and Hera. Posterior poets, however, fable much of the persecution she underwent from that goddess. Her children by Zeus were Phoebos-Apollo, and Artemis.
While wandering from place to place with her children, Leto, says a legend most prettily told by Ovid, arrived in Lycia. The sun was shining fiercely, and the goddess was parched with thirst. She saw a pool, and knelt down at it to drink. Some clowns, who were there cutting sedge and rushes, refused to allow her to slake her thirst. In vain the goddess entreated, representing that water was common to all, and appealing to their compassion for her babes. The brutes were insensible: they not only mocked at her distress, but jumped into and muddied the water. The goddess, though the most gentle of her race, was roused to indignation: she raised her hand to heaven and cried, "May you live for ever in that pool!" Her wish was instantly accomplished, and the churls were turned into frogs.
Niobe, the daughter of Tantalos and wife of Amphion, proud of her numerous offspring, ventured to set herself before Leto: the offended goddess called upon her children Apollo and Artemis, and soon Niobe was by the arrows of these deities made a childless mother, and stiffened into stone with grief.
Tityos, the son of Earth or of Zeus and Elara, happened to see Leto one time as she was going to Pytho. Inflamed with love he attempted to offer her violence: the goddess called to her children for aid, and he soon lay slain by their arrows. His punishment did not cease with life: vultures preyed on his liver in Erebos.
Leto was called 1. Fair-ankled; 2. Sable-vested; 3. Gold-tressed; 4. Much-honoured.
With respect to the origin of this goddess and her name, the most simple hypothesis, in our opinion, is that which regards herself as Night, and esteems her name to be of the same family of words with ????, ???? and with the Latin lateo and Laverna, and, therefore, to signify concealment or darkness. The parents assigned to her correspond with this hypothesis; for light, which is made to spring from darkness, may, in a reversed order, be regarded as its origin. The epithet ‘sable-vested' and the mildness of character usually ascribed to this goddess, also accord with Night; and if it should appear that the children of Leto were Sun and Moon, there can hardly remain a doubt of this being her true nature.
Keightley, Thomas. The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy. Whittaker, 1838.
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