Hera Punished Her Husband’s Former Mistress by Prolonging Her Childbirth Labor for Years
Being Zeus’ mistress was tough. The chief Olympian god’s relentless pursuit, persistence, rough wooing, and refusal to take “no” for an answer was bad enough. Making it worse for those who gave in to Zeus, or were raped by him, was having to deal with his insanely jealous wife, Hera, and her crazy punishments – not of her philandering husband, but of his victims.
Leto was Zeus’ first mistress, and became the first to fall victim both to the chief god, who slaked his lust and abandoned her when she got pregnant, and then to the cray wrath of his wife. To exacerbate the unfairness of it all, Leto had been Zeus’ mistress before he married Hera, so the chief god had not even been cheating on his wife at the time.
In Greek myth, Leto was a Titan goddess whose beauty captivated Zeus, and she became his first and favorite lover. However, after Zeus impregnated Leto with twins, he abandoned her in order to marry his sister, Hera. Although the affair and pregnancy had occurred before Hera’s marriage to Zeus, the Queen of Heaven was still jealous of Leto, and set out to turn her life into a living hell.
First, Hera kicked the pregnant Leto out of Mount Olympus, forcing her to wander the world amongst mortals. Then, when it was time to give birth, the Queen of Heaven saw to it that the childbirth was as miserable as could be, by prolonging Leto’s labor. Hera banned her from giving birth on “terra firma” – the mainland or any island under the sun. She then sent emissaries to all cities and settlements, forbidding them to offer Leto shelter, food, or water. Leto was thus forced to keep wandering the earth, without a chance to settle down anywhere to give birth.
After crisscrossing the world for years while in labor, unable to find a resting place, Leto came across a barren island not connected to the ocean floor, so it did not count as a real “island” by Hera’s definition. The island’s barrenness also meant it had nothing to lose, and thus nothing to fear from Hera’s wrath by defying her will. There, Leto finally gave birth to the gods Artemis and Apollo.
Hera, now even more jealous of Leto after she gave birth to Zeus’ children, sent a dragon to chase her and her newborns around. In their flight, they sought refuge in Lycia, whose peasants, on Hera’s instructions, sought to prevent Leto and her infants from drinking water. So Leto turned them into frogs before the infant Apollo eventually slew the dragon.
Hera also sent the gigantic Titan Tityos to rape Leto, but she was once again saved by her children, Apollo and Artemis, who killed their mother’s would-be rapist. Hera eventually came to terms with the situation, accepted things as they were, and let Leto and her children be. Leto then went on to become a goddess of motherhood, with a divine portfolio that also included protection of the young.