Niobe

(Νιόβη) is the name of a Greek female deity. She was the daughter of Tantalus (according to the most popular version of the story), the sister of Pelops, and was the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. She was so proud of the number of her children that she boasted herself as superior to Leto (Latona), who had but two children. The number of those of Niobe is usually given as seven sons and seven daughters. Apollo and Artemis (Diana) so heartily espoused the cause of Leto that they killed the children of Niobe with their arrows. Zeus (Jupiter) metamorphosed Niobe into a stone, and placed it on Mount Sipylus in Lydia. During the summer this stone always shed tears (see Homer, II. xxiv). The story of Niobe was a favorite subject of ancient art. A group representing Niobe and her children was discovered at Rome in 1583, and is now at Florence. Some of the sculptures are very beautiful. Even the ancient Romans were in doubt whether the work proceeded from Scopas or Praxiteles.