NIOBE

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 bodies 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 Dagi, 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. The number of her children, which varies with different authors, is generally given in post-Homeric literature as seven sons and seven daughters. The origin of the name Niobe is uncertain; it may have been of non-Greek origin and perhaps derived from Asia Minor, which seems also to have been the source of her story.