Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Leto.
The gallery
The Latona Fountain, Versailles
Gaspard & Balthazar Marsy, 1668–1670
A monumental fountain in the gardens of Versailles, with sculpture by the brothers Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy. It depicts Latona, the Roman name of Leto, with her children Apollo and Diana, appealing to Jupiter as the Lycian peasants who insulted her are transformed into frogs, an episode told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The subject is often read as a political allegory for Louis XIV, the triumph of royal order over insolence and revolt.
In play
Latona Fountain
Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
Versailles' Latona Fountain freezes Leto's Lycian vengeance in marble and lead — the mother of Apollo and Artemis as Louis XIV's allegory of divine right.
Delos
Leto's wandering ended on Delos — the island that received the birth of Apollo and Artemis, and still anchors her cult.
Leto
The Titaness mother of the twin archers remains the type of persecuted maternity — Hera's jealousy, and a birth that made an island holy.