Source Verification: Leto
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why could Leto not find a place to give birth?
Every land refused her. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo has her travel from island to island and along the mainland asking for a birthplace, and each one is afraid: the god she carries will be powerful and demanding, and no poor rock wants that. Only Delos agrees, and only after Leto swears that Apollo will build his temple there. Later authors attribute the refusals to Hera forbidding the earth to receive her.
Source: Homeric Hymn to Apollo 89-126
Who were Leto's parents?
Hesiod makes her the daughter of the Titans Koios and Phoibe, which puts her in the generation before the Olympians and makes Apollo and Artemis grandchildren of Titans on their mother's side. This matters for how the two are described: they belong to the Olympian order through Zeus while carrying Titan descent through Leto, and Hesiod calls her the gentlest of those on Olympos.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 404-410
Where Accounts Differ
- birthplace of Artemis
- Hera's role in the refusals
- The Homeric Hymn puts both births on Delos. Other accounts separate the twins and place Artemis on Ortygia, an island identified differently by different authors.
- Hera's role in the refusals is explicit in later authors and only implied in the Homeric Hymn, which describes the fear of the lands without naming its cause.
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 918-920
- Hesiod, Theogony 404-410
- Homeric Hymn to Apollo 89-126