I went to Greece last year and it was amazing. I can’t tell you all about it – it would take too long – but I wanted to at least talk a little about Leto‘s tree. It was on the island of Delos, the “floating island” (fixed into place in gratitude) where Leto was finally able to give birth after being chased all over creation by Python. There is some debate about whether or not Artemis was born there – she and Apollo might have been twins, but she was also credited with being midwife at his birth, and some sources say she was born on Ortygia. I like to imagine Leto in labor with her daughter supporting her, and leaning on the knees of the midwife goddess, Eileithyia, under a single palm tree.
And then I went there. The whole island is incredible – nobody lives there, so its just THERE, looking like it hasn’t been touched for a couple thousand years. But the best part of the whole thing (saying a lot because the ruins are the bomb diggity) was the one palm tree in the center of the dried up sacred lake. I sat under it and thought of Leto.
And I’ve now included a picture so that you can think of her, too.
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