Niobe (redirected from Niobi)

Niobe (nī`ōbē), in Greek mythology, queen of Thebes, wife of Amphion and daughter of Tantalus. The mother of six sons and six daughters, she boasted of her fruitfulness, saying that Leto had only two children. Apollo and Artemis, angry at this insult to their mother, killed all Niobe's children. Crying inconsolably, she fled to Mt. Sipylus. There Zeus turned her into a stone image that wept perpetually.

---

Niobe

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.

---

Niobe

for boasting of superiority, her children are killed. [Gk. Myth.: Hall, 224; Rom. Lit.: Metamorphoses]

See : Arrogance

---

Niobe

weeps when her children are slain, even after Zeus turns her to stone. [Gk. Myth.: RHDC]

See : Crying

---

Niobe

weeps unceasingly for her murdered children. [Gk. Myth.: Wheeler, 259]

See : Grief

---

Niobe

her children slain, she is turned to stone by Zeus at her own request. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 717]

See : Transformation

---

Niobe

in ancient Greek mythology, the daughter of Tantalus and the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. Niobe’s boasting of her numerous progeny (seven sons and seven daughters, according to Euripides) insulted Leto (Latona), the mother of Apollo and Artemis. To avenge the insult to their mother, Apollo and Artemis slew the children of Niobe (the Niobids) with their arrows. Niobe, who turned to stone from grief, was carried to the summit of Mount Sipylus in Asia Minor, where she was condemned eternally to shed tears for her murdered children. There were numerous reworkings of the Niobe myth in classical literature (such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 6) and art (sculpture of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., preserved in Roman copies).