Myth Library · Assault And Punishment
Tityos Attacks Leto
3 source witnesses · 3 source-scoped variants · reviewed 2026-08-29
The Odyssey sees Tityos punished eternally for assaulting Leto, while Pseudo-Apollodorus makes Apollo and Artemis kill him in their mother's defense and Pausanias describes a Spartan throne image of the combat.
Canonical narrative
In the Odyssey's underworld vision, Odysseus sees the giant Tityos stretched across the ground while two vultures tear at his liver and he cannot drive them away. The punishment follows his assault upon Leto as she traveled toward Pytho. The scene names the offense and its endless bodily consequence, but it does not name Apollo or Artemis as the killers or explain how Tityos reached the underworld.
Pseudo-Apollodorus gives a different narrative moment. Tityos sees Leto traveling toward Pytho, is overcome by lust, and seizes her. Her children Apollo and Artemis shoot him with arrows in their mother's defense. The passage does not say Hera sent him. That motivation cannot be imported without another exact witness.
Pausanias then describes the monumental throne at Amyclae as including Apollo and Artemis shooting Tityos. His report is evidence for a public image of the sibling-defense version in a Spartan sanctuary setting. It does not reproduce the Odyssey's vultures or identify an instigator. The three witnesses preserve punishment, defensive killing, and material commemoration as distinct scopes.
Participants and roles
Apollo
defender who shoots Tityos in later Greek mythography and Amyclaean imagery
The Odyssey does not name Apollo as the punishing agent.Artemis
defender who shoots Tityos alongside Apollo in later sources
Her role is absent from the Odyssey's underworld description.Leto
traveler and mother whom Tityos assaults
The sexual violence is explicit and not a decorative pretext for combat.Tityos
assailant killed or eternally punished for attacking Leto
Death by arrows and underworld punishment belong to different tellings.Source-scoped variants
The Odyssey's underworld punishment
Tityos lies stretched in Hades while vultures tear his liver because he assaulted Leto on her way to Pytho.
What differs: Apollo and Artemis are not named as killers in this passage. Their defensive shooting belongs to later mythography and imagery.
Greek ArchaicApollo and Artemis defend Leto
Tityos seizes Leto after being overcome by lust, and her children Apollo and Artemis shoot him with arrows.
What differs: This source names the sibling defenders but no instigator, while the Odyssey concentrates on the underworld penalty.
Greek Roman Imperial · Ancient GreeceTityos on the Amyclaean throne
Pausanias sees Apollo and Artemis shooting Tityos among the many scenes on the monumental throne at Amyclae.
What differs: The image description materially attests the sibling-defense version but does not supply the Odyssey's underworld punishment or a motive beyond Tityos's assault upon Leto.
Greek Roman Imperial · AmyclaeSource witnesses
EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Odyssey
Homer; translated by A. T. Murray · 1919
Book 11 · Line 576-581
Underworld punishment for assaulting Leto; Apollo and Artemis are not named as killers here.
Open reviewed sourceEXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Library
Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921
Book 1 · Chapter 4 · Section 1
Tityos seizes Leto after being overcome by lust, and Apollo and Artemis shoot him in their mother's defense.
Open reviewed sourceEXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Description of Greece
Pausanias; Spiro Greek edition and Jones/Ormerod translation volumes · 1935
Book 3 · Chapter 18 · Section 15
Pausanias describes Apollo and Artemis shooting Tityos on the Amyclaean throne.
Open reviewed source