Niobe
A queen who boasted that her fourteen children made her superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two. Apollo and Artemis killed all fourteen, and Niobe wept until she turned to stone.
The Legend of Niobe
Queen of Thebes and daughter of Tantalus, Niobe boasted that her fourteen children surpassed the two of the goddess Leto. Apollo and Artemis, offended on their mother's behalf, descended from Olympus and shot all fourteen with their arrows — Apollo killed the sons, Artemis the daughters. Niobe, shattered, fled to Mount Sipylus, where Zeus turned her to stone. Even as rock she wept, and the stone still seeps water. Her fate echoes the punishments of Arachne and Marsyas — mortals who challenged the gods. The tale was told as warning across Thebes, Argos, and Sparta.
Parents
Tantalus and Dione
Children
Seven sons, seven daughters (all killed)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The element niobium was named after Niobe because of its chemical similarity to tantalum (named after her father) — a daughter element beside her father.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Cassiopeia
🗡 heroQueen whose vanity endangered her daughter
Cassiopeia was the queen who boasted her beauty exceeded the sea nymphs — provoking Poseidon to demand her daughter Andromeda as sacrifice.
Megara
🗡 heroNone recorded
First wife of Heracles, given to him as a reward and later killed in his madness
Aegyptus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A mythological king with fifty sons who demanded marriage to the fifty daughters of his brother Danaus, precipitating one of the most infamous mass killings in Greek mythology
Cassiopeia
🗡 heroNone recorded
Vain queen of Aethiopia whose boast brought a sea monster upon her kingdom
Niobe's Punishment
💭 conceptNarrative
The destruction of a queen's fourteen children by Apollo and Artemis for her boast of superiority to the goddess Leto
Hecuba
🗡 heroQueen of Troy
Hecuba was the queen of Troy who watched her husband, sons, and city destroyed — embodying the total devastation that war inflicts on women.
Agraulos
🗡 heroNone recorded
A daughter of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, who disobeyed Athena by opening a forbidden chest and was driven to leap from the Acropolis
Hypermnestra
🗡 heromercy
The only one of the fifty Danaids who refused to murder her husband Lynceus on their wedding night.
Danaus
🗡 heromurder
Egyptian-born king of Argos whose fifty daughters murdered their fifty husbands on their wedding night — all except one.
Dirce
🗡 heropunishment, spring
The queen of Thebes who tormented Antiope and was killed by being tied to a wild bull by Antiope's sons Amphion and Zethus, becoming the sacred spring of Thebes.
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Danaids
🗡 heropunishment
The fifty daughters of Danaus, forty-nine of whom murdered their husbands and were condemned to fill leaky vessels in Tartarus forever.