Editing Niobe (section)

== Mythology ==
[[File:Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons - Penn Provenance Project.jpg|250px|thumb|Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons, ca. 1474 – Penn Provenance Project]]

=== Family ===
Her father was the ruler of a city located near [[Manisa]] in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis"<ref>{{cite book | title = History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia |page=62 |isbn=978-1-4067-0883-7 |author= George Perrot |publisher=Chapman and Hall |year=1892 |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyartinphry00perriala#page/62/mode/1up }}</ref> or "the city of [[Tantalus]]", or "Sipylus". The city was located at the foot of [[Mount Sipylus]] and its ruins were reported to be still visible at the beginning of the 1st century AD,<ref>{{cite book | title = Pausanias, and other Greek sketches, later retitled Pausanias's Description of Greece |isbn=1-4286-4922-0 |first=James George |last=Frazer |author-link=James George Frazer |publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing Company]] |year=1900 |page=11 |url=https://archive.org/stream/pausaniasandoth00frazgoog#page/n21/mode/2up/search/tantalus}}</ref> although few traces remain today.<ref>There is a "Throne" conjecturally associated with Pelops in the Yarıkkaya locality in Mount Sipylus. There are two tombs called "Tomb of Tantalus" near the summits of the neighboring mountains of [[Yamanlar]] and Mount Sipylus in western Turkey, sources by respective scholars differing on the associations that may be based on the one or the other.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus ([[Magnesia ad Sipylum]]) was built in its place.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pliny the Elder |title=Natural History |url=https://archive.org/stream/L330PlinyNaturalHistoryI12/L330-Pliny%20Natural%20History%20I%3A1-2#page/n355/mode/2up/search/tantalis |volume=2 |page=337 |translator=H. Rackham |date=1938}}</ref>

Niobe's father is referred to as "[[Phrygians|Phrygian]]" and sometimes even as "King of [[Phrygia]]",<ref name="myth">{{cite book|title= Bulfinch's Mythology  |isbn=978-1440426308|year= 2010|author=Thomas Bulfinch|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> although his city was located in the western extremity of [[Anatolia]] where [[Lydia]] was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium BC, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more inland. There are references to his son and Niobe's brother as "Pelops the Lydian", and this led some scholars to suspect Niobe belonged to a primordial house of [[Lydia]].{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}
 
In the ''[[Fabulae]]'' Dione, identified in the text as a daughter of Atlas, becomes the wife of [[Tantalus]] and mother of [[Pelops]], though Niobe herself is not mentioned.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#82 82–83].</ref>In [[Ovid]]'s account of the story, Niobe names her father as Tantalus and her mother as a sister of the [[Pleiades]] and a daughter of [[Atlas]].<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.146-6.217 6.174].</ref> Although she gives no name it is assumed to be Dione.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Barchiesi |editor-first1=Alessandro |author1=Gianpiero Rosati |chapter=Commentary on Book 6 |title=A Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses |date=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=634 |isbn=9781139047272}}</ref> The [[Hyades (mythology)|Hyades]] are traditionally the sisters of the Pleiades and daughters of Atlas,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gantz |first1=Timothy |title=Early Greek myth: a guide to literary and artistic sources |date=1993 |page=218 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University press |isbn=0-8018-4410-X}}</ref> and in the account of [[Pherecydes of Athens|Pherecydes]], Dione numbers among them.<ref name="Fowlervol1">Pherecydes ''in'' R. Fowler, ''Early Greek Mythography'' Fr.90a (=A, [https://topostext.org/work/866#18.486c 18.486c] D Scholia to the ''Iliad'' 18.486c); Fr.90d (=Hyginus, [[De Astronomia|''De'' ''Astronomia'']] [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.21.1 2.21.1])</ref>  According to a [[scholia]] on [[Euripides]]'s [[Orestes (play)|Orestes]], her mother is either Eurythemista<ref>Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaineuripi00schwgoog/page/97/mode/1up?view=theater 11] [https://euripidesscholia.org/Edition/OrestesScholia_all.html English translation].</ref> or Euryanassa,<ref>Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaineuripi00schwgoog/page/95/mode/1up?view=theater 4 and 11] [https://euripidesscholia.org/Edition/OrestesScholia_all.html English translation].</ref> with the latter being a genealogy also given by [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]].<ref>[[Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://archive.org/details/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft/page/38/mode/2up 52].</ref>

Niobe's husband was [[Amphion and Zethus|Amphion]], a son of [[Zeus]] and [[Antiope of Thebes|Antiope]]. Amphion's twin brother, [[Amphion and Zethus|Zethus]], was a ruler of Thebes. Amphion became a great singer and musician after his lover [[Hermes]] taught him to play music and gave him a golden lyre. Zethus's wife and Niobe's sister-in-law was [[Aëdon]], who had a single child, [[Itylus]]. Aëdon was jealous of the vast progeny Niobe had produced, so she conceived a plan to kill Niobe's firstborn, a boy named [[Amaleus]]. Aëdon instructed her son to sleep in the back of the room, or in the innermost position of the bed that night, but Itylus forgot about his mother's words. So when Aëdon entered the children's chamber, she unknowingly killed her own child instead of Niobe's. Her pain was so great the gods transformed her into a nightingale.<ref>{{cite book | title = Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature | first = William F. | last = Hansen | publisher = [[Cornell University Press]] | date = 2002 | location = UK, USA | isbn = 0-8014-3670-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ezDlXl7gP9oC | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=ezDlXl7gP9oC&pg=PA303 303]}}</ref>

=== Blasphemous boast ===
[[File:Jacques-Louis David, Niobe and Her Daughter, 1775-80, NGA 107057.jpg|thumb| alt=Niobe, in flowing garment, arm raise and face mournful, holding the collapsed body of her daughter across her thigh | [[Jacques-Louis David]], Niobe and Her Daughter, 1775–80, black ink with gray wash over graphite on laid paper, overall: 15.2 × 14&nbsp;cm (6&nbsp;×&nbsp;5 1/2 in.), NGA 107057]][[File:Ağlayan Kaya, Spil Dağı.jpg|thumb|The Weeping Rock in [[Mount Sipylus]], [[Manisa]], [[Turkey]], has been associated with Niobe's legend since Antiquity.<ref>E.g. by [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], i.390ff [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisWrath.html Theoi.com on-line quotation]</ref>]]Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female (the [[Niobids]]), to [[Leto]] who only had two children, the twins Apollo and Artemis. The number varies in different sources.<ref>According to ''[[Iliad]]'' XXIV, there were twelve, six male, six female. [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] (''Varia Historia'' xii. 36): "But Hesiod says they were nine boys and ten girls—unless after all the verses are not Hesiod but are falsely ascribed to him as are many others." Nine would make a triple [[Multiple birth|triplet]], triplicity being character of numerous sisterhoods ([[Jane Ellen Harrison|J.E. Harrison]], ''A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903), "The Maiden-Trinities" pp 286ff); ten would equate to a full two hands of male [[Dactyl (mythology)|dactyl]]s, while twelve would resonate with the number of [[Olympian gods]].</ref> Her speech which caused the indignation of the goddess was rendered in the following manner:

{{blockquote|It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona [i.e, Leto] and her offspring, Apollo and Diana [i.e, Artemis] when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of an angry woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. "What folly," said she, "is this! to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I? My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's daughter, with her two children? I have seven times as many. Fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one deny this?<ref name=myth/>}}
Using arrows, [[Artemis]] killed Niobe's daughters and [[Apollo]] killed Niobe's sons. According to some versions, at least two of Niobe's children (usually [[Chloris|Meliboea]], along with her brother [[Amyclas]] in other renderings) was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo for having sworn revenge. Devastated, Niobe fled back to [[Mount Sipylus]]<ref>The return of Niobe from Thebes to her Lydian homeland is recorded in pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' 3.46.</ref> and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a natural rock formation which resembles a female face, and it has been associated with Niobe since ancient times and described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. The rock formation is also known as the "Weeping Rock" ({{langx|tr|Ağlayan Kaya}}), since rainwater seeps through its [[porosity|porous]] [[limestone]].

After Niobe's overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children's deaths, Amphion commits [[suicide]] out of grief; according to [[Telesilla]], Artemis and Apollo murder him along with his children. [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], however, writes that in his madness he tried to attack the temple of Apollo, and was killed by the god's arrows.

The only [[Niobid]] spared stayed greenish pale from horror for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was called [[Chloris]] (the pale one).<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. ''Description of Greece'' 2.21.9</ref>