Editing Leto (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:Елагин остров. Кухонный корпус. Латона.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Statue of Leto in the [[Yelagin Palace]], [[St. Petersburg]].]]

Leto was identified from the fourth century onwards as the principal local mother goddess of [[Anatolia]]n [[Lycia]], as the region became Hellenized.<ref>The process is discussed by T. R. Bryce, "The Arrival of the Goddess Leto in Lycia", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte'', '''32'''1 (1983:1–13).</ref> In Greek inscriptions, the children of Leto are referred to as the "national gods" of the country.<ref>Bryce 1983:1 and note 2.</ref> Her sanctuary, the [[Letoon]] near [[Xanthos]], predated Hellenic influence in the region, however,<ref>Bryce 1983, summarizing the archaeology of the Letoon.</ref> united the Lycian confederacy of city-states. The Hellenes of [[Kos]] also claimed Leto as their own. Another sanctuary, more recently identified, was at [[Oenoanda]] in the north of Lycia.<ref>Alan Hall, "A Sanctuary of Leto at Oenoanda" ''Anatolian Studies'' '''27''' (1977) pp. 193–197. {{JSTOR|3642664}}</ref> There was a further Letoon at [[Delos]].

Leto is exceptional among [[Zeus]]' divine lovers for being the only one who was tormented by [[Hera]], who otherwise only directs her anger toward mortal women and nymphs, but not goddesses, thus being treated more in line with mortal women than divine beings in mythology.{{sfn|Rigoglioso|2009|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ifrHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 110–112]}} Zeus had various affairs with goddesses like [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]], [[Demeter]], [[Dione (Titaness)|Dione]], [[Maia]], [[Persephone]], [[Themis]], [[Mnemosyne]], [[Selene]], [[Nemesis]] and more, which were never harmed by Hera; the sole exception (besides Leto) is found in the ''[[Suda]]'', a late Byzantine lexicon which recounts the story of Hera cursing a pregnant [[Aphrodite]]'s belly, leading to the birth of [[Priapus]].{{sfn|Rigoglioso|2009|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ifrHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 110–112]}} 

Moreover, Leto's troubled childbirth bears resemblance to [[Alcmene]]'s, as both suffered painful extended labours due to Hera not allowing [[Eileithyia]], the goddess of childbirth, to help them, and both stories overall are also thematically linked to the myth of [[Semele]] and her son [[Dionysus]], another story of a mortal woman who bore an important son for Zeus and was punished by Hera for that.{{sfn|Rigoglioso|2009|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ifrHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 110–112]}} Yet at the same time Hesiodic tradition makes her the daughter of two Titans, elder gods, and one of Zeus' first seven wives. Leto's peculiar mythology and ontology has led to suggestions that she might be a composite of two figures, an immortal goddess who bore [[Artemis]], and a mortal woman who gave birth to [[Apollo]].{{sfn|Rigoglioso|2009|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ifrHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 110–112]}}