Letoon

Letoon was the sacred cult center of Lycia and its most important sanctuary dedicated to the three national deities of Lycia - Leto and her twin children Apollo and Artemis. Legend has it that Leto was loved by Zeus, but was chased away by jealous Hera until Leto gave birth to her twins on the island of Delos. Another story gives the birthplace as the source of the Xanthos River. One story tells that shepherds angrily refused to let her drink from a fountain - she turned them into frogs in retaliation. Still another story says that wolves helped her find the Xanthos River. In gratitude she named the country Lycia: Lykos is Greek for wolf.

Letoon was a sanctuary precinct and not actually a city, though it did have a settlement surrounding it. This was the spiritual heart of Lycia, its federal sanctuary and the place of national festivals. Letoon was the center of pagan cults activity until perhaps the 5th century AD when Lycia was ravaged by Arab attacks and the area started to silt up with sand brought by the Xanthos River.

An inscription found at Letoon refers to the establishment of the cult as well as its rules for monthly and annual sacrifices - offenders against this were found guilty before Leto, her children and the Nymphs. The Lycian cult of Leto was one of the many forms of the wide-spread mother-goddess religion which originated in ancient Anatolia and spread throughout the ancient world.

Features of Letoon include:

Temples - Remains of three temples, each dedicated to one of the three deities of Letoon are located side by side in the center of the site. The largest and best-preserved is that of Leto, in the Ionic order, likely dating back to the 5th century BC. The remains of an even older temple have been found beneath the existing one. A second temple lies to the east, decorated with Doric friezes, dated c. 4th century BC. This temple has been attributed to Apollo and displays a very nice floor mosaic depicting his symbols - bow and arrow, sun and lyre. Between the temples stands of Leto and Apollo lies a third building, smaller and with excellent masonry. This is the temple of Artemis and dates back to c. 4th century BC, like the temple of Apollo.


Nymphaeum - To the south and west of the temples is a nymphaeum connected to a sacred spring, always full of terrapins and frogs said to be the unfortunate shepards transformed by Leto’s vengeance. This was perhaps used in an religious immersion ceremony.

Amphitheatre - Letoon has a nice theatre with vaulted passages leading to entrances on either side. The entrance on the south-west side has an interesting carving of a row of sixteen masks including the faces of Dionysus, a satyr and a comic old woman.