All surviving sources make Asteria the daughter of the original Titans Phoebe and Coeus, and the younger sister of Leto.

[3][4] Before Cronus was dethroned and cast down by his six children, Asteria married Perses, one of her first cousins, and gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Hecate.

[14] In order to escape the amorous advances of the god, who in the form of an eagle chased her down,[15] she transformed herself into a quail (Ancient Greek: ὄρτυξ, órtux) and flung herself into the Aegean Sea.

[23][24] According to Hyginus, Leto was borne by the north wind Boreas at the command of Zeus to the floating island, at the time when Python was pursuing her, and there clinging to an olive, she gave birth to Apollo and Artemis.

[6][14][25] Delos was named so because after the birth of Apollo it became visible and apparent to the world, as before it was hidden beneath the waves,[12] and fixed to the sea bed, so it was no longer floating.

[28] A different version was added by the poet Nonnus who recounted that, after Asteria was pursued by Zeus but turned herself into a quail and leapt into the sea, Poseidon instead took up the chase.

In the madness of his passion, he hunted the chaste goddess to and fro in the sea, riding restless before the changing wind and thus she transformed herself into the desert island of Delos with the help of her nephew Apollo who rooted her in the waves immovable.

[32] The goddess Asteria is attested as early as the eighth century BC, appearing in Hesiod's Theogony, a work documenting the genealogical lines of the gods, where she is listed in relation to her parents, sister and daughter.

[35][36] Later the Hellenistic poet Callimachus used Pindar as his source for the more coherent Hymn to Delos, in which focus is shifted from Apollo to the island itself and the story of how Asteria threw herself into the sea in order to avoid mating with Zeus.

[28][39] Additionally, the Hymn does not explicitly make Hera the reason why Leto is having so much trouble finding a suitable place to give birth, an element which is more pronounced in later versions.