What is "leto"

In Greek mythology, Leto (; Lētṓ; Λατώ, Lātṓ in Dorian Greek, etymology and meaning disputed) is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, the sister of Asteria, and the mother, by Zeus, of Apollo and Artemis.

The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus. Classical Greek myths record little about Leto other than her pregnancy and her search for a place where she could give birth to Apollo and Artemis, since Hera in her jealousy had caused all lands to shun her. Finally, she finds an island that is not attached to the ocean floor so it is not considered land and she can give birth. This is her one active mythic role: once Apollo and Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim and benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, her part already played. In Roman mythology, Leto's equivalent is Latona, a Latinization of her name, influenced by Etruscan Letun.

In Crete, at the city of Dreros, Spyridon Marinatos uncovered an eighth-century post- Minoan hearth house temple in which there were found three unique figures of Apollo, Artemis and Leto made of brass sheeting hammered over a shaped core (sphyrelata). Walter Burkert notes that in Phaistos she appears in connection with an initiation cult.

Leto was identified from the fourth century onwards with the principal local mother goddess of Anatolian Lycia, as the region became Hellenized. In Greek inscriptions, the Letoides are referred to as the "national gods" of the country. Her sanctuary, the Letoon near Xanthos predated Hellenic influence in the region, however, and 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. There was, of course, a further Letoon at Delos.

Leto's primal nature may be deduced from the natures of her father and mother, who may have been Titans of the sun and moon. Her Titan father is called "Coeus," and though Herbert Jennings Rose considers his name and nature uncertain, he is in one Roman source given the name Polus, which may relate him to the sphere of heaven from pole to pole. The name of Leto's mother, "Phoebe" (Φοίβη — literally "pure, bright"), is identical to the epithet of her son Apollo, Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων, throughout Homer.

Leto is a goddess in Greek mythology.

Leto or LETO may also refer to:

As a name:

• Leto (surname), a list of people so named
• Leto (plant), a genus of plants in the sunflower family.
• Leto Atreides (disambiguation), three fictional characters in Frank Herbert's Dune universe
• Leto (genus), a moth genus containing the single species Leto venus

Places

• Leto, Florida, an unincorporated community
• Leto, Guinea-Bissau, a place in the Oio Region in Guinea-Bissau
• Leto Regio, a geological feature on Phoebe, a moon of Saturn
• 68 Leto, an asteroid

LETO:

• Madrid-Torrejón Airport's ICAO code

Leto is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Antonio Leto (1844–1913), Italian painter
• Jared Leto (born 1971), actor and singer of band Thirty Seconds to Mars
• Julie Elizabeth Leto, American writer of romance novels
• Julius Pomponius Laetus or Pomponius Leto (1425–1498), Italian humanist
• Marco Leto (1931–2016), Italian film and television director and screenwriter
• Peter Leto, American television director and television producer
• Sebastián Leto (born 1986), Argentinian footballer
• Shannon Leto (born 1970), American drummer of band Thirty Seconds to Mars