“Latona and the Lycian Peasants” by David Teniers II. (17th century).
___________________________________________________________________________________
Leto (which means”the hidden one”. Roman equivalent: Latona) was daughter of the Titans Coeus (Polus) and Phoebe and the sister of Asteria.
In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, (The Letoides).
Zeusmarried is sister Hera while Leto was already pregnant. While the pregnancy started before the marriage, Hera was still jealous of Leto.
Hence, as Hyginus, in his book “Fabulae” states, Hera banned Leto from giving birth on any island at sea, or any place under the sun.
Finally, she found an island (Delos, that wasn’t attached to the ocean floor so it wasn’t considered land and she could give birth there.
Leto easily brought forth Artemis, the elder twin. By contrast, Leto labored for nine nights and nine days in order to give birth to…
View original post 1,447 more words