Niobids- Greek GroupCollective
Also known as: Niobidai and Νιοβίδαι
Description
Apollo's arrows found the sons first, one by one on the open plain. Then Artemis turned her bow on the daughters. Every child of Niobe and Amphion died in a single day because their mother had boasted she was greater than Leto.
Mythology & Lore
The Slaughter
Niobe was queen of Thebes, wife of Amphion, and mother to seven sons and seven daughters in the tradition Apollodorus preserves. Homer in the Iliad counts twelve. Whatever the number, Niobe thought it enough to boast. She declared herself greater than Leto, who had borne only two children. Those two were Apollo and Artemis.
Ovid tells the killing in full in the Metamorphoses. The sons were first. They were exercising on the plain outside Thebes when Apollo's arrows began to fall. One was riding, one was wrestling, one was throwing a javelin. Each arrow found its mark. The boys died where they stood or ran.
Niobe heard and came out with her daughters. She threw herself over the bodies and begged the gods to spare at least one. Artemis's arrows struck the daughters as they stood around their mother. The last girl clung to Niobe and Niobe screamed to be left this one, the smallest. The arrow found her while the words were still in the air.
Niobe turned to stone. Ovid says a whirlwind carried her to Mount Sipylus in Lydia, where she became a rock on the cliff face. Water streamed down the stone. The ancients said it was still weeping.
When Achilles sits with Priam in the last book of the Iliad and urges the old king to eat, he tells this story. Even Niobe ate, he says, though her twelve children lay dead around her. Even stone eats.
Relationships
- Family