Niobe

—Niobean, adj.

/nuy"oh bee'/, n. Class. Myth.

the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion of Thebes. She provoked Apollo and Artemis to vengeance by taunting their mother, Leto, with the number and beauty of her own children; Niobe's children were slain and Zeus turned her into stone, in which state she continued to weep over her loss.

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In Greek mythology, the prototype of the bereaved mother.

The daughter of Tantalus, she married King Amphion of Thebes and bore him six sons and six daughters. She made the mistake of boasting of her fertility to the Titaness Leto, who had only two children, Apollo and Artemis. As punishment for her pride, Apollo killed all of Niobe's sons and Artemis all her daughters. Niobe was so overwhelmed with grief that the gods turned her into a rock on Mount Sipylus (near modern Izmir, Turkey), which weeps endlessly as the snow above it melts.

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▪ Greek mythology

 in Greek mythology, the daughter of Tantalus (king of Sipylus in Lydia) and wife of King Amphion of Thebes. She was the prototype of the bereaved mother, weeping for the loss of her children. According to Homer's Iliad, she had six sons and six daughters and boasted of her progenitive superiority to the Titan Leto, who had only two children, the twin deities Apollo and Artemis. As punishment for her pride, Apollo killed all Niobe's sons, and Artemis killed all her daughters. The 2nd-century-BC mythographer Apollodorus (Library, Book III) mentions the survival of Chloris, who became the wife of Neleus and mother of Nestor. The bodies of the dead children lay for nine days unburied because Zeus had turned all the Thebans to stone, but on the 10th day they were buried by the gods. Niobe went back to her Phrygian home, where she was turned into a rock on Mount Sipylus (Yamanlar Dağı, northeast of Izmir, Tur.), which continues to weep when the snow melts above it.

      The story of Niobe illustrates the favourite Greek theme that the gods are quick to take vengeance (nemesis) on human pride and arrogance ( hubris). Niobe is the subject of lost tragedies by both Aeschylus and Sophocles, and Ovid tells her story in his Metamorphoses. Papyrus fragments of Sophocles' Niobe show that Apollo and Artemis appear on stage together, and Apollo points out Niobe's daughter for his sister to kill. The number of her children, which varies with different authors, is generally given in post-Homeric literature as seven sons and seven daughters.

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