Editing Niobe (section)

==Within Greek culture==
In his archaic role as bringer of diseases and death, Apollo with his poison arrows killed Niobe's sons and Artemis with her poison arrows killed Niobe's daughters.<ref>Compare the "Elphenshots" in northern-European folklore. Martin Nilsson (1967). ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion.'' Vol I, p.443</ref> This is related to the myth of the seven youths and seven maidens who were sent every year to the king [[Minos]] of Crete as an offering sacrifice to the [[Minotaur]]. Niobe was transformed into a stone on [[Mount Sipylus]] in her homeland of [[Phrygia]], where she brooded over the sorrows sent by the gods.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' xxiv,602</ref> In Sophocles' ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]],'' the heroine believes that she will have a similar death.<ref>''[https://archive.today/20120711002217/http://magic.education2020.com/Websites/Literature/antigone.html Antigone]'', lines 823-838. ANTIGONE: I’ve heard about a guest of ours, daughter of Tantalus, from Phrygia – she went to an excruciating death in Sipylus, right on the mountain peak. The stone there, just like clinging ivy, wore her down, and now, so people say, the snow and rain never leave her there, as she laments. Below her weeping eyes her neck is wet with tears. God brings me to a final rest which most resembles hers. CHORUS: But Niobe was a goddess, born divine – and we are human beings, a race which dies. But still, it’s a fine thing for a woman, once she’s dead, to have it said she shared, in life and death, the fate of demi-gods.</ref>
The iconic number "seven" often appears in Greek legends, and represents an ancient tradition because it appears as a [[lyre]] with seven strings in the [[Hagia Triada|Hagia Triada sarcophagus]] in [[Crete]] during the [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenean age]].<ref>{{cite book|author=F. Schachermeyer |date=1964 |title= Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta |publisher=[[W. Kohlhammer]]|location= Stuttgart |page=124}}</ref> Apollo's lyre had also seven strings.