Latona
| Religion in NetHack |
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In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Latona is the neutral goddess for the pantheon of Rangers that are not gnomish, elven or drow.
Description
Latona is a neutral god of holy holiness, and her minions consist of naiads, oreads, earth elementals, water elementals, and titans. Her crowning gift is The Veil of Latona, a neutral Ranger-favoring intelligent artifact whose base item is a cloak of invisibility: The Veil of Latona grants drain resistance while carried, and grants magic resistance and reflection in addition to invisibility while worn.
Origin
Latona is the Roman equivalent of Leto, a goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion who is the mother of Apollo and Artemis (whose Roman equivalent is Diana) - Latona is a Latinization of Leto's name, influenced by the Etruscan Letun. Leto is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the sister of Asteria. In ancient Roman art, she is presented as a modest, veiled woman in the presence of her children and Zeus, which is the basis for The Veil of Latona in dNetHack and its variants.
When Leto's beauty caught the eye of Zeus, the king of the gods, and their affair resulted in Leto becoming pregnant, Hera - queen of the gods and Zeus's ever-jealous wife - ordered all lands to shun her and deny her shelter, and sent the monstrous Python to pursue and harm Leto. The fleeing goddess eventually found the island of Delos; as it was not joined to the mainland or attached to the ocean floor, it thus did not qualify as a "land", and she gave birth there. Notably, Leto is the only one of Zeus's divine lovers to be persecuted by Hera who was a goddess herself. Leto also plays a role in other myths where she punishes mortals for their hubris against her: in one particular instance, when Niobe boasts of being a better number due to having more children, Leto asks Apollo and Artemis to avenge her, which they do by shooting all of Niobe's children dead.
