Letus, a mountain of Liguria. Livy, bk. 41, ch. 18.
Levāna, a goddess of Rome, who presided over the action of the person who took up from the ground a newly born child, after it had been placed there by the midwife. This was generally done by the father, and so religiously observed was this ceremony, that the legitimacy of a child could be disputed without it.
Leuca, a town of the Salentines, near a cape of the same name in Italy. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 376.——A town of Ionia,——of Crete,——of Argolis. Strabo, bk. 6, &c.
Leucas, or Leucadia, an island of the Ionian sea, now called St. Maura, near the coast of Epirus, famous for a promontory called Leucate, Leucas, or Leucates, where desponding lovers threw themselves into the sea. Sappho had recourse to this leap to free herself from the violent passion which she entertained for Phaon. The word is derived from λευκος, white, on account of the whiteness of its rocks. Apollo had a temple on the promontory, whence he is often called Leucadius. The island was formerly joined to the continent by a narrow isthmus, which the inhabitants dug through after the Peloponnesian war. Ovid, Heroides, poem 15, li. 171.—Strabo, bk. 6, &c.—Silius Italicus, bk. 15, li. 302.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 274; bk. 8, li. 677.——A town of Phœnicia.
Leucasion, a village of Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 25.
Leucaspis, a Lycian, one of the companions of Æneas, drowned in the Tyrrhene sea. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 334.
Leucate. See: [Leucas].
Leuce, a small island in the Euxine sea, of a triangular form, between the mouths of the Danube and the Borysthenes. According to the poets, the souls of the ancient heroes were placed there as in the Elysian fields, where they enjoyed perpetual felicity, and reaped the repose to which their benevolence to mankind, and their exploits during life, seemed to entitle them. From that circumstance it has often been called the island of the blessed, &c. According to some accounts Achilles celebrated there his nuptials with Iphigenia, or rather Helen, and shared the pleasures of the place with the manes of Ajax, &c. Strabo, bk. 2.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Ammianus, bk. 22.—Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus], bk. 2, li. 773.——One of the Oceanides whom Pluto carried into his kingdom.
Leuci, a people of Gaul, between the Moselle and the Maese. Their capital is now called Toul. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 1, ch. 40.——Mountains on the west of Crete, appearing at a distance like white clouds, whence the name.
Leucippe, one of the Oceanides.