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Key Details
Type
Sacred SiteMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
37.396°N, 25.268°E
About This Location
Leto's island, Apollo's birth
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo has Leto wander until Delos, a floating rock, agrees to host her labor. Artemis and Apollo are born there; the island is pinned and made holy. Archaic Delos was a real Ionian sanctuary: temples, a sacred lake, a ban on dying on the island in later Athenian rule. The hymn is the charter. There is no older literary rival for the birth story. The geography is tiny; the cult catchment was the Aegean.
Primary Sources
“Rejoice, blessed Leto, for you bore glorious children, lord Apollo and Artemis who delights in arrows.”
More from Greek Pantheon
Mount Olympus
MountainThe highest mountain in Greece and the mythological home of the twelve Olympian gods.
The Underworld
RealmThe gloomy realm of the dead ruled by Hades, located deep beneath the earth.
Delphi
Sacred SiteThe site of the oracle of Apollo, considered the center of the world (omphalos) by the ancient Greeks.
Tartarus
UnderworldThe deepest abyss of the underworld, a dungeon of torment where the Titans were imprisoned and the wicked punished for eternity.
Elysian Fields
RealmA paradise at the end of the earth where heroes and the virtuous were sent after death to live in eternal bliss.
River Styx
Body Of WaterThe principal river of the underworld, upon which even the gods swore binding oaths. Charon ferried the dead across its dark waters.