Gentle Light of the Night, Mother of Sun and Moon
A Titan’s descendant and a lover of Zeus, who wandered the whole world pregnant under Hera’s ban — no place on earth dared shelter her. At last the floating island of Delos took her in, and there she bore Apollo and Artemis, and the barren island became sacred.
Hera decreed that no land could give Leto an inch of ground, and held back the goddess of childbirth. Leto drifted to Delos, a floating island that did not count as "land," and labored nine days and nights before the twins were born. Artemis, born first, at once helped her mother deliver Apollo — a goddess of childbirth on the job from birth.
Queen Niobe of Thebes mocked Leto for having only two children while she had fourteen. Apollo and Artemis came at the news, and with golden and silver arrows slew all fourteen in a single day. Niobe wept until she turned to stone, a spring flowing endlessly from the rock like tears. The price of insulting this humble goddess was the heaviest in all of myth.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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