Letoon

Twinned with Xanthos, Letoon was the temple and religious counterpart to the main Lycian city, situated just two-and-a-half miles to the south-west. The site contains three temples – the temples of Leto, Artemis, and Apollon (Apollo).

Letoon is the sanctuary of Leto, the lover of Zeus. The story says that Hera was angered on hearing Zeus had fallen for Leto, and therefore Leto was persecuted by the jealous Hera for her actions. In other accounts Leto is already pregnant by the time Zeus married Hera, and both versions seem to appear in texts. Either way, Hera appears to be a goddess not to be messing with, for Leto was hounded from country to country by the angered Hera who didn’t want her to settle in any place to give birth, but Leto finally found sanctuary at Delos, a floating island.

Still cursed by Hera, Leto wandered the lands with her twin god children, Apollo and Artemis. One day, at the site that would later become Letoon, Leto stopped at a fountain to get water for her children but the local shepherds, who supported Hera, stirred the bottom of the fountain and made the water muddy and undrinkable. Leto, in absolute anger, turned the shepherds into frogs. Being turned into a frog appears to have been a rather common occurrence in those days, but these skills were under the guardianship of godly beings who, thankfully, appear to have scarpered off somewhere in the last couple of thousand years.

Although Leto was one of the lower Titans of Greek mythology, she may have originally been a Lycian deity, beginning as a cult of Leto in Lycia. The term ‘Leto’ may have been a form of the Lycian word for ‘woman’ or ‘wife’ – Lada – and there are other Leto temples in Lycia, mainly those at Calinda and Psychus. Leto, Apollon and Artemis were all national heroes of Lycia, and Letoon was the most important religious sanctuary in the entire state – the federal sanctuary of the Lycian League. All national festivals were organised from Letoon, and the priests located there were the highest and most important in the whole of Lycia.

In Greek mythology Leto was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the sister of Asteria. Her twin children, her son Apollon and her daughter Artemis, were also gods. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, so the importance of Leto is clearly defined.

Much later when Leto was travelling to Delphi Titus, a giant, sexually assaulted the goddess. Thankfully Apollon came to her rescue and defeated the giant with his arrows and golden sword. For his crime, Titus was sent to the underworld to have his regenerating liver pecked by vultures for eternity. No doubt he is still there now. On top of turning people into frogs, eternal punishment seems to have been somewhat favoured by the gods in times past. Certainly the art of temporary punishment or even absolute forgiveness appear to be missing from the vengeful godly beings of the ancient world.

The temples of Letoon have been pretty much reduced to ground level, but enough evidence remains of their function. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the area to the south of the three temples has yet to be excavated, and the current use of the land for farming may be the reason. Still, plenty to deal with in the main sanctuary, as large blocks are scattered all around.

The Leto temple is located on the west side and is the oldest of the three, having an Ionic architectural style. It probably dates as early as the 6th Century BC, since Letoon was a part of the Leto myth, and the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was also built during this century. The eastern temple is the Apollo temple, which has a Doric style and dates to the second Century BC. A mosaic floor clearly shows this was the temple of Apollo. Both the Leto and Apollo temples have eleven columns along the side and six across each end. The smaller Artemis temple, totally unlike its massive namesake at Ephesus, is sandwiched between the two and was likely built sometime between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

The sacred spring where Leto turned the shepherds into frogs was made into a nymphaeum by the later Romans, and is located slightly to the south-west of the Leto temple. Over part of the nymphaeum a church was built in the 6th Century AD. To the north of the sanctuary is a large theatre dating to the Hellenistic period.

Following on from Xanthos, my brief tour of Letoon was a warm and sunny one on the afternoon of Sunday 15 March, 2015. Unfortunately Letoon itself was a rather watery world due to the winter rains not subsiding by the time of my visit. For this I could not reach the Leto or Artemis temples without getting very wet, and the ancient spring where Leto turned the shepherds into frogs was even farther away. Probably a good thing as I did actually come across a frog near the Apollo temple. You don’t think… No, surely not…

 

References:

Tor, Kemal Hakki. Shiny Territory in Anatolia: Lycia. 2012. Ten Books, Antalya, Turkey

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisLeto.html

http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/titans.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/Zeus’s_Lovers/Leto/leto.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/leto.html

http://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/leto.htm

http://www.mythography.com/myth/welcome-to-mythography/greek-gods/titans-1/leto/

http://study.com/academy/lesson/ionic-order-of-greek-architecture-definition-example-buildings-quiz.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/greek-architecture-doric-ionic-or-corinthian.html