The birth of Apollo and Artemis

Since this post got many views, I’m making an update. On this occasion, I will talk about the origin of the sun and the moon, according to Greek mythology. These objects were represented by two gods, two twin brothers: Apollo and Artemis.

It all starts with Leto, daughter of Ceo and Phoebe. This goddess caught the attention of Zeus (yes, her too). The king of the gods seduced her and they both turned into quails. For some reason, they preferred to mate in that form. Thus, Leto became pregnant.

When Hera found out, she sent the python of the Delphi oracle to chase Leto, who ran throughout her pregnancy. The reason: Hera had decreed that no one could give her shelter.

Moreover, Hera had decided that Leto was not allowed to give birth in any place where the sun shines.

A desert island

So Leto turned into a wolf and kept running with the help of Boreas. Fortunately for her, her sister had become Ortygia, the land of the quails: a barren and rocky island that used to float adrift. Since there were no inhabitants to forbid anything and, surely, because she was her sister, she gave her shelter there.

But Hera had also forbidden Ilithia, goddess of childbirth, to help Leto, so the childbirth lasted 9 days and nights. The ordeal ended after the gods bribed Illithia with a necklace of amber beads.

And they were twins

This is how Artemis, goddess of the moon, the virgin goddess, the hunter, was born and helped her mother with the childbirth. All the goddesses (except Hera, of course) were witnesses. Among them was Themis, as I mentioned here. Later, under a palm tree, Apollo, the sun god, was born.

Apollo killed the python and since then, the oracle of Delphi has been dedicated to him and not to Themis, as it was originally (more details on this here).

Seven days after Apollo had been born, Zeus sent a lot of presents to him.

Ortigia became a sacred place, where no one is allowed to be born or die (if you die there you go to jail). Zeus fixed the island with a column that sank to the bottom of the sea. Since then, the island was renamed Delos (the visible one).

Epiloge

After the birth, Leto went with her babies to Lycia. There she stopped at a pond to drink. Some peasants, instructed by Hera, tried to prevent her from doing so: They removed the mud from the pond to cloud the water. In response, Leto turned them into frogs, so that they would live forever in those muddy waters.

Later, Apollo and Artemis would become their mother’s protectors, defending her from the giant Titius (who tried to rape her) and from the mockery of Niobe.

Here a funny video about this topic:

Bibliography

• Antes del Principio, by Ariel Pytrell
• https://porlagreciadezeus.es/nacimiento-artemis-apolo/

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