over Apollo - en zijn tweelingzuster Artemis - en over hun moeder Leitha

LEITHA

Greek Name

Λητω

Transliteration

Lêtô

Roman Name

Latona

Translation

Gentle, demure (lêthô)

Apollo, Tityus and Leto - 

Athenian red-figure plate C5th B.C., 

Staatliche Antikensammlungen

LETO was one of the Titanides (female Titans), a bride of Zeus, and the mother of the twin gods Apollon and Artemis. She was the goddess of motherhood and, with her children, a protectress of the young. Her name and iconography suggest she was also a goddess of modesty and womanly demure. Like her sister Asteria she may also have been a goddess of the night, or alternatively of the light of day.

When Leto was pregant with the twins she was pursued relentlessly by the goddess Hera, who drove her from land to land preventing her from finding a place to rest and give birth. The floating island of Delos eventually provided her with refuge. Later when she was later travelling to Delphoi (Delphi), the giant Tityos (Tityus) attempted to abduct her, but Apollon intervened and slew him with arrows.

In Greek vase painting Leto was usually depicted as a woman lifting her veil in a gesture of modesty. She was usually depicted accompanied by her two children. The exact meaning of her name is obscure, some commentators connect it with the word lethô, to move unseen, suggestive of modesty, others derive it from the Lycian word for woman, lada.
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Over Apollo: 

APOLLON (Apollo) was the Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and attributes such as a wreath and branch of laurel, bow and quiver of arrows, raven, and lyre.

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FAMILY OF LETO

ridderspoor - delphinium

PARENTS

[1.1] KOIOS & PHOIBE (Hesiod Theogony 404, Apollodorus 1.9, Diodorus Siculus 5.67.1, Hyginus Preface)
[1.2] KOIOS (Homeric Hymn III To Apollon 61, Pindar Processional Song on Delos, Sappho Frag 44A, Callimachus Hymn to Delos, Orphic Hymn 35, Ovid Metamorphoses 6.186, Hyginus Fabulae 140)[1.3] PHOIBE (Aeschylus Eumenides 6 & 323)

OFFSPRING

[1.1] APOLLON, ARTEMIS (by Zeus) (Hesiod Theogony 918, Hesiod Works & Days 770, Homer Iliad 1.9 & 21.495, Homer Odyssey 6.100 & 11.318, Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis, Pindar Nemean Ode 6 & 8, Pindar Processional Song on Delos, Aeschylus Eumenides 6 & 323, Orphic Hymn 35, Callimachus Hymn to Artemis & Hymn to Delos, Apollodorus 1.21 & 3.46, Pausanias 8.9.1 & 8.53.1. Hyginus Fabulae 9 & 140, et al)

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ENCYCLOPEDIA

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LETO (Lêtô) - Leitha, in Latin LATONA, according to Hesiod (Theog. 406, 921), a daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe, a sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus, to whom she was married before Hera. 
Homer, who likewise calls her the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus (Il. i. 9, xiv. 327, xxi. 499, Od. xi. 318, 580), mentions her as the friend of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks, and in the story of' Niobe, who paid so dearly for her conduct towards Leto. (Il. v. 447, xx. 40, 72, xxiv. 607; comp. xxi. 502, Od. xi. 580, Hymn. in Apoll. 45, &c., 89, &c.) 
In later writers these elements of her story are variously worked out and embellished, for they do not describe her as the lawful wife of Zeus, but merely as a concubine, who was persecuted during her pregnancy by Hera. (Apollod. i. 4, § 1; Callim. Hymn. in Del. 61, &c.; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen.232, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 140.) 

source: Britih Library

All the world being afraid of receiving her on account of Hera, she wandered about till she came to the island of Delos, which was then a floating island, and bore the name Asteria (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 35, 37, 191); but when Leto touched it, it suddenly stood still upon four pillars. (Pind. Fragm. 38; Strab. xi. p. 485.) According to Hyginus (Fab. 93,140), Delos was previously called Ortygia, 
while Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Korissos)  mentions a tradition, according to which Artemis was not born in Delos, but at Corissus.

Servius (ad Aen. iii. 72) relates the following legends: Zeus changed Leto into a quail (ortux), and in this state she arrived in the floating island, which was hence called Ortygia; 
or, Zeus was enamoured with Asteria, but she being metamorphosed, through her prayers, into a bird, flew across the sea; she was then changed into a rock, which, for a long time, lay under the surface of the sea; but, at the request of Leto, it rose and received Leto, who was pursued by Python. Leto then gave birth to Apollo, who slew Python. (Comp. Anton. Lib. 35; Ov. Met. vi. 370; Aristot. Hist. Anim. vi. 35; Athen. xv. 701; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 707; Iamblich. Vit. Pyth. 10; Strab. xiv. p. 639: in each of these passages we find the tradition modified in a particular way.) 

Zimzim

But notwithstanding the many discrepancies, especially in regard to the place where Leto gave birth to her children, most traditions agree in describing Delos as the place. (Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. init. 59, in Del. 206, 261; Aeschyl. Eum. 9; Herod. ii. 170.) After the birth of Apollo, his mother not being able to nurse him, Themis gave him nectar and ambrosia; and by his birth the island of Delos became sacred, so that henceforth it was not lawful for any human being to be born or to die on the island; and every pregnant woman was conveyed to the neighbouring island of Rheneia, in order not to pollute Delos. (Strab. x. p. 486.)

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- in the Folkemuseum - Norway -

We shall pass over the various speculations of modern writers respecting the origin and nature of this ,divinity, Leitha or (ancient) Leto and shall mention only the most probable, according to which Leto is "the obscure" or "concealed," not as a physical power, but as a divinity yet quiescent and invisible, from whom is issued the visible divinity with all his splendour and brilliancy. This view is supported by the account of her genealogy given by Hesiod; and her whole legend seems to indicate nothing else but the issuing from darkness to light, and a return from the latter to the former. Leto was generally worshipped only in conjunction with her children, as at Megara (Paus. i. 44. § 2), at Argos (ii. 21. § 10), at Amphigeneia (Strab. viii. p. 349), in Lycia (ibid. xiv. p. 665), near Lete in Macedonia (Steph. Byz. s. v. Lêtê), in a grove near Calynda in Caria (Strab. xiv. p. 651), and other places.

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

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