LATONA--LETO.
_Ques._ Who was Latona?
_Ans._ She was the daughter of Phoebe and Coeus the Titan. When she
was driven from heaven by the jealousy of Juno, she found an asylum in
the island of Delos, where she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Terra
(the earth) had promised Juno to give no shelter to her rival, but the
island of Delos formerly floated in the sea, and was at that time
hidden under the waters. Neptune, pitying the forlorn state of Latona,
caused it to emerge from the sea, when it became fixed and immovable
for her use.
_Ques._ Relate the transformation of Lycian peasants into frogs.
_Ans._ Latona, while wandering with her babes in the country of Lycia,
in Asia, arrived, exhausted by heat and fatigue, on the borders of a
clear pool. She was about to quench her thirst in the cool waters,
when some clowns rudely hindered her. She begged them to have
compassion, and not deny her so small a refreshment; but they mocked
her prayers, and when she tried to approach they waded into the pool,
and, stirring up the mud, defiled the waters so that it became unfit
to drink. The goddess was so much incensed, that she changed the cruel
rustics into frogs, and condemned them to dwell forever in the muddy
pool.
The punishment of Niobe will be related in another place. The
sufferings of the giant Tityus in hell, were also the penalty of an
insult offered to this goddess.
The Greeks personified Night, under the name of Latona; hence she was
said to have been the first wife of Jupiter, the mother of Apollo and
Diana, (the sun and moon) and the nurse of the earth and stars. The
Egyptians had the same allegory, with a little variation, as,
according to them, she was grandmother and nurse of Horus and
Bu´bastis, their Apollo and Diana.
This goddess is generally represented on ancient monuments, as a large
and beautiful woman, wearing a veil. In paintings, the veil is always
black; in cutting gems, artists sometimes availed themselves of a dark
colored vein in the stone, to produce the same effect, and represent
the shades of night. The veil is sometimes studded with stars.