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Encyclopedia Britannica

LATONA (tat. form of Gr. Arlrw, Leto)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 274 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LAP-LEO

LATONA (tat. form of Gr. Arlrw, Leto) , daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, mother of Apollo and Artemis. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

seats of her legend are Delos and Delphi, and the generally accepted tradition is a union of the legends of these two places. Leto, pregnant by Zeus, seeks for a place of

refuge

REFUGE

to be delivered. After long wandering she reaches the barren isle of Delos, which, according to

Pindar

PINDAR (Gr. HivSapos, c. 522–443 B.c.)

(crag. 87, 88), was a wandering rock borne about by the waves till it was fixed to the bottom of the sea for the

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

of Apollo and Artemis. In the oldest forms of the legend Hera is not mentioned; but afterwards the wanderings of Leto are ascribed to the jealousy of that goddess, enraged at her amour with Zeus. The foundation of Delphi follows immediately on the

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

of the god; and on the sacred way between Tempe and Delphi the giant Tityus offers violence to Leto, and is immediately slain by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis (Odyssey, xi. 576-581; Apollodorus i. 4). Such are the main facts. of the Leto legend in its common literary form, which is due especially to the two Homeric hymns to Apollo. But Leto is a real goddess, not a mere mythological figure. The honour paid to her in Delphi and Delos might be explained as part of the cult of her son Apollo; but temples to her existed in Argos, in Mantineia and in Xanthus in Lycia; her sacred grove was on the coast of Crete. In Lycia

graves

GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846— )

are frequently placed under her protection, and she is also known as a goddess of fertility and as icovparp4os. It is to be observed that she appears far more conspicuously in the Apolline myths than in those which grew round the

great

GREAT

centres of Artemis

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

, the reason being that the idea of Apollo and Artemis as twins is one of later growth on Greek soil. Lycia, one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

seats of the cult of Apollo, where most frequent traces are found of the

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Leto as the

great

GREAT

goddess, was probably the earlier home of her religion.
In Greek art Leto usually appears carrying her children in her arms, pursued by the

dragon

DRAGON (Fr. dragon, through Lat. draco, from the Greek; connected with SEpeoµay " see," and interpreted as " sharp-sighted "; O.H. Ger. tracho, dracho, M.H.G. trache, Mod. Ger. Drachen; A.S. draca, hence the equivalent English form " drake," " fire-drake,

sent by the jealous Hera, which is slain by the infant Apollo; in vase paintings especially she is often represented with Apollo and Artemis. The statue of Leto in the Letoon at Argos was the

work

WORK

Praxiteles

PRAXITELES

.

End of Article: LATONA (tat. form of Gr. Arlrw, Leto)

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