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In Greek mythology, Niobe (; grc-gre, Νιόβη ) was a daughter of Tantalus and of either
Dione Dione may refer to: Astronomy *106 Dione, a large main belt asteroid *Dione (moon), a moon of Saturn *Helene (moon), a moon of Saturn sometimes referred to as "Dione B" Mythology *Dione (Titaness), a Titaness in Greek mythology *Dione (mythology) ...
, the most frequently cited, or of
Eurythemista In Greek mythology, the name Eurythemista or Eurythemiste (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυθεμίστη) may refer to: *Eurythemista, a Calydonian princess as the daughter of King Porthaon and Laothoe. She was the sister of Sterope and Stratonice, ...
or
Euryanassa In Greek mythology, Euryanassa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυάνασσα) is a name that may refer to: *Euryanassa, daughter of the river-god Pactolus. She was the wife of Tantalus, and one of the possible mothers of Pelops, Broteas and Niobe. *Euryan ...
, the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and
Broteas In Greek mythology, Broteas (Ancient Greek: Βροτέας), a hunter, was the son of Tantalus (by Dione, Euryanassa or Eurythemista), whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. Broteas was also one of the Lapiths, killed at the battle of the La ...
. Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis" 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, although few traces remain today. Pliny reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus ( Magnesia ad Sipylum) was built in its place. Niobe's father is referred to as " Phrygian" and sometimes even as "King of
Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; grc, Φρυγία, ''Phrygía'' ) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires ...
", although his city was located in the western extremity of Anatolia where
Lydia Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...
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 Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: ‎𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...
. Niobe's husband was Amphion, a son of Zeus and Antiope. Amphion's twin brother, 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. She was already mentioned in Homer's '' Iliad'' which relates her proud ''
hubris Hubris (; ), or less frequently hybris (), describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. The term ''arrogance'' comes from the Latin ', mean ...
'', for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food. Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and though turned to stone, she broods over the sorrows sent by the Gods". Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the twin founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but in fact no shrine to Niobe.


Central theme

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. Her speech which caused the indignation of the goddess was rendered in the following manner: Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobe's daughters and Apollo killed Niobe's sons. According to some versions, at least one Niobid (usually Meliboea, along with her brother
Amyclas In Greek mythology, Amyclas ( grc, Ἀμύκλας) refers to two individuals: * Amyclas, a mythical king of Sparta. Pausanias, 10.9.5 *Amyclas, a Theban prince as the son of King Amphion and Niobe, daughter of Tantalus.Apollodorus, 3.5.6 He peris ...
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 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. The rock formation is also known as the "Weeping Rock" ( tr, Ağlayan Kaya), since rainwater seeps through its porous limestone. After Niobe's overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children's deaths, Amphion commits
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
out of grief; according to
Telesilla Telesilla was an ancient Greek lyric poet from Argos, active in the fifth century BC. She is known for her supposed role in the defence of Argos in 494 BC, which is doubted by modern scholars. Only a few fragments of her poetry survive, several of ...
, Artemis and Apollo murder him along with his children. 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 In Greek mythology, the Niobids were the children of Amphion of Thebes and Niobe, slain by Apollo and Artemis because Niobe, born of the royal house of Phrygia, had boastfully compared the greater number of her own offspring with those of Leto, ...
spared stayed greenish pale from horror for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was called
Chloris In Greek mythology, the name Chloris (; Greek Χλωρίς ''Chlōrís'', from χλωρός ''chlōrós'', meaning "greenish-yellow", "pale green", "pale", "pallid", or "fresh") appears in a variety of contexts. Some clearly refer to different char ...
(the pale one).


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. This is related to the myth of the seven youths and seven maidens who were sent every year to the king
Minos In Greek mythology, Minos (; grc-gre, Μίνως, ) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten ...
of Crete as an offering sacrifice to the
Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...
. Niobe was transformed into a stone on Mount Sipylus in her homeland of
Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; grc, Φρυγία, ''Phrygía'' ) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires ...
, where she brooded over the sorrows sent by the gods. In Sophocles' '' Antigone'' the heroine believes that she will have a similar death. The iconic number "seven" often appears in Greek legends, and represents an ancient tradition because it appears as a
lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...
with seven strings in the Hagia Triada sarcophagus in Crete during the Mycenean age. Apollo's lyre had also seven strings.


In literature and fine arts


Literature

The story of Niobe, and especially her sorrows, is an ancient one. The context in which she is mentioned by Achilles to
Priam In Greek mythology, Priam (; grc-gre, Πρίαμος, ) was the legendary and last king of Troy during the Trojan War. He was the son of Laomedon. His many children included notable characters such as Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. Etymology Mo ...
in Homer's '' Iliad'' is as a stock type for mourning. Priam is not unlike Niobe in the sense that he was also grieving for his son Hector, who was killed and not buried for several days. Niobe is also mentioned in Sophocles's '' Antigone'' where, as Antigone is marched toward her death, she compares her own loneliness to that of Niobe. Sophocles is said to have also contributed a play titled ''Niobe'' that is lost. The ''Niobe'' of Aeschylus, set in Thebes, survives in fragmentary quotes that were supplemented by a papyrus sheet containing twenty-one lines of text. From the fragments it appears that for the first part of the tragedy the grieving Niobe sits veiled and silent. Furthermore, the conflict between Niobe and Leto is mentioned in one of
Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
's poetic fragments ("Before they were mothers, Leto and Niobe had been the most devoted of friends."). In Latin language sources, Niobe's account is first told by Hyginus in his collection of stories in brief and plain ''Fabulae''. Parthenius of Nicaea records a rare version of the story of Niobe, in which her father is called Assaon and her husband Philottus. The circumstances in which Niobe loses her children are also different, see . Niobe's iconic tears were also mentioned in Hamlet's
soliloquy A soliloquy (, from Latin ''solo'' "to oneself" + ''loquor'' "I talk", plural ''soliloquies'') is a monologue addressed to oneself, thoughts spoken out loud without addressing another. Soliloquies are used as a device in drama to let a character ...
(Act 1, Scene 2), in which he contrasts his mother's grief over the dead King, Hamlet's father – "like Niobe, all tears" – to her unseemly hasty marriage to Claudius. The quotation from Hamlet is also used in Dorothy L. Sayers' novel ''Murder Must Advertise'', in which an advertising agency's client turns down an advertisement using the quotation as a caption. In William Faulkner's novel ''Absalom, Absalom!'' Faulkner compares Ellen, the wife of Sutpen and father of Henry and Judith, to Niobe, "this Niobe without tears, who had conceived to the demon utpenin a kind of nightmare" (Chapter 1). Among works of modern literature which have Niobe as a central theme, Kate Daniels' ''Niobe Poems'' can be cited.


Arts

The subject of Niobe and the destruction of the Niobids was part of the repertory of Attic vase-painters and inspired sculpture groups and wall frescoes as well as relief carvings on Roman sarcophagi. The subject of the Attic calyx-krater from
Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...
conserved in the Musée du Louvre has provided the name for the Niobid Painter. A lifesize group of marble Niobids, including one of Niobe sheltering one of her daughters, found in Rome in 1583 at the same time as the '' Wrestlers'', were taken in 1775 to the Uffizi in Florence where, in a gallery devoted to them, they remain some of the most prominent surviving sculptures of Classical antiquity (''see below''). New instances come to light from time to time, like one headless statue found in early 2005 among the ruins of a villa in the
Villa dei Quintili The Villa of the Quintilii (Italian: Villa dei Quintili) is an ancient Roman villa beyond the fifth milestone along the Via Appia Antica just outside the traditional boundaries of Rome, Italy. It was built by the rich and cultured brothers Sextus ...
just outside Rome. In painting, Niobe was painted by post-Renaissance artists from varied traditions (''see below''). An early appearance, ''The Death of Niobe's Children'' by Abraham Bloemaert, was painted in 1591 towards the start of the
Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...
. The English artist Richard Wilson gained great acclaim for his ''
The Destruction of the Children of Niobe ''The Destruction of the Children of Niobe'' is a painting by Richard Wilson, created in 1760. It depicts the Greek myth of the murder of Niobe's daughters by the goddess Artemis and her sons by Apollo. The painting won acclaim for Wilson, who o ...
'', painted in 1760. Three notable works, all dating from the 1770s, ''Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children'' by
Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier (''male''; 6 June 1743 17 August 1824) was a well-known French painter of historical subjects who was active before, during and after the French Revolution. Life Lemonnier was born in Rouen on 6 June 1743. ...
, ''The Children of Niobe Killed by Apollo and Diana'' by
Pierre-Charles Jombert Pierre-Charles Jombert (1748 - 1825) was a French painter.Pierre-Charles Jombert
from the Metr ...
and ''Diana and Apollo Piercing Niobe’s Children with their Arrows'' by
Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
belong to the tradition of French Baroque and Classicism. ''Niobe'' is an abstract painting by
Károly Patkó Karoly Patko (1895 - 1941 in Budapest) was a twentieth century Hungarian painter and copper engraver, noted for his nude paintings in a plastic presentation. Patkó, studied in Budapest, was influenced by István Szőnyi and Vilmos Aba Novák ...
. In classical music, Italian composer Agostino Steffani (1654 – 1728) dedicated his opera "Niobe, Queen of Saba" to her myth. Benjamin Britten based one of his ''
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid ''Six Metamorphoses after Ovid'' (Op. 49) is a piece of program music for solo oboe written by English composer Benjamin Britten in 1951. History The piece was inspired by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. It is dedicated to oboist Joy Boughton, daughte ...
'' on Niobe. In modern music,
Caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
called the last track on his 2007 album '' Andorra'' "Niobe". In modern dance, José Limón named a section of his dance theater work ''Dances for Isadora'' as "Niobe". The section is a solo for a woman mourning the loss of her children. A marble statue of Niobe is a female lead character in a long-running 1892 farce Niobe (play) by Harry Paulton. In the play she is bought to life by a quaint electrical storm and brings the Edwardian values and relationships in the household to disarray. The season at the London Royal Strand Theatre enjoyed more than five hundred performances. The play is the subject of a musical dedication by Australian composer Thomas Henry Massey. The play was filmed in 1915.


Examples in painting and sculpture

File:Sommer, Giorgio (1834-1914) - n. 2990 - Niobe madre - Firenze.jpg, Picture of the Uffizi sculpture representing Niobe photographed by
Giorgio Sommer Giorgio Sommer (1834–1914) was one of Europe’s most important and prolific photographers of the 19th century. Active from 1857 to 1888, he produced thousands of images of archeological ruins, landscapes, art objects and portraits. He was bor ...
File:Abraham Bloemaert - Apollo and Diana Punishing Niobe by Killing her Children - Google Art Project.jpg, 1591 painting by Abraham Bloemaert File:François Spierincx 002.jpg, 1610 tapestry by François Spierincx File:Destruction of Niobe's children.jpg, 1760 painting by Richard Wilson File:Niobe&Enfants 1770painting Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier.jpg, 1770 painting by
Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier (''male''; 6 June 1743 17 August 1824) was a well-known French painter of historical subjects who was active before, during and after the French Revolution. Life Lemonnier was born in Rouen on 6 June 1743. ...
File:Pierre-Charles Jombert - Les enfants de Niobé tués par Apollon et Diane.JPG, 1772 painting by
Pierre-Charles Jombert Pierre-Charles Jombert (1748 - 1825) was a French painter.Pierre-Charles Jombert
from the Metr ...
File:Niobe Statue Kvetna Gardens Kromeriz Czech Republic.jpg, Statue of Niobe in Květné Gardens, Kroměříž, Czech Republic File:Houdini Gravesite.jpg, Niobe statue at
Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...
's Grave in New York City File:Munich Niobid sarcophagus.jpg, Roman sarcophagus showing the massacre of Niobeʼs children. Ca 160 AD. Glyptothek, Munich.


Related terms

The choice of "Niobe" simply as a name in works of art and literature is not uncommon either. Two minor characters of Greek mythology have the same name (''see
Niobe (disambiguation) Niobe may refer to: Greek mythology *Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and Dione * Niobe, rival of Aedon, possibly identified with either of the other two Niobes: the daughter of Tantalus or the daughter of Phoroneus * Niobe (daughter of Phoroneus) Art ...
'') and the name occurs in several works of the 19th century. More recently, one of the characters in ''The Matrix'' film series is also named Niobe. A character named Niobe also appeared in the '' Rome'' TV series. The element
niobium Niobium is a chemical element with chemical symbol Nb (formerly columbium, Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a light grey, crystalline, and ductile transition metal. Pure niobium has a Mohs hardness rating similar to pure titanium, and it has sim ...
was so named as an extension of the inspiration which had led earlier to the naming of the element tantalum by
Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (Stockholm, Sweden, 16 January 1767 – Uppsala, Sweden, 11 February 1813) was a Swedish analytical chemist who discovered tantalum in 1802. - subscription required He was notably deaf. Education Anders Gustav Ekeberg wa ...
. On the basis of his argument according to which there were two different elements in the tantalite sample, Heinrich Rose named them after children of Tantalus—niobium and pelopium—although the argument was later contested as far as pelopium was concerned. A mountain in British Columbia, Canada is named Mount Niobe. Four successive ships of the British Royal Navy were called ''
HMS Niobe Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Niobe'', after the figure of Niobe in Greek mythology: *HMS ''Niobe'' was a 38-gun fifth-rate, formerly the , which the Royal Navy captured in 1800; ''Niobe'' was broken up in 1816. * was a ...
''.


See also

* Aedon *
Cassiopeia (disambiguation) Cassiopeia ( ) or Cassiopea may refer to: Greek mythology * Cassiopeia (mother of Andromeda), queen of Aethiopia and mother of Andromeda * Cassiopeia (wife of Phoenix), wife of Phoenix, king of Phoenicia * Cassiopeia, wife of Epaphus, king of Eg ...


Notes


References


Modern scholarship

* Robert Manuel Cook, 1964. ''Niobe and Her children'' ( Cambridge University Press). Summary of the most recent research on ancient Niobid representations, pp. 6–30. * Albin-Lesky, "Niobe" in '' Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' xxxiii (1936:644–73) for a full discussion of the complexities of Niobe's theme.
Theoi.com, Wrath of Artemis: Niobe
Excerpts of Niobe's story from Greek and Latin authors in translation.


Classical authors

* Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Famous Women, pp. 33–35; Harvard University Press 2001; * Ovid, '' Metamorphoses'' VI.145–310. * Pseudo-Apollodorus, '' Bibliotheca'' III.5.6.


General reading

* * * * {{Authority control Princesses in Greek mythology Queens in Greek mythology Metamorphoses into terrain in Greek mythology Anatolian characters in Greek mythology Characters in Greek mythology Leto Deeds of Apollo Deeds of Artemis Deeds of Zeus Theban mythology Women in Greek mythology Metamorphoses characters