Niobe in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Niobe

18 passages from 11 ancient authors that tell of Niobe, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Niobe was a character in Greek mythology, daughter of Tantalus and Dione, although Euryanassa has been named as her mother in a few accounts. Her brot... For the story in one place, read our article on Niobe.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Fragments 1.19–29Agenor's line, Thebes and BoeotiaThese fragments give the children of Phoenix and Agenor, including Europa, Phineus and Adonis, and then the children of Niobe and the death of Oedipus at Thebes. The rest are brief notes on places and people of Boeotia, such as the river Cephisus, Arnae and Onchestus.

Homer (1)

Homer, Iliad 24.552–617Priam ransoms Hector's body: Achilles gives up HectorPriam asks to be taken to a seat while Hector lies unburied, and Achilles angrily refuses, and the old man gives way. Achilles has the body washed and anointed and placed on a bier, and lays a cloak and tunic over it, and prays to Patroclus not to be angry that he has given up the body. He then bids Priam sit to supper, and tells the tale of Niobe, who ate though her twelve children lay dead.

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.5.1–9Dionysus, Pentheus, Niobe and OedipusDionysus roams Egypt, Syria and Thrace, where Lycurgus is punished, and returns to Thebes, where Agave tears her son Pentheus apart; he also turns the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. Cadmus and Harmonia go to the Encheleans and become serpents, and the house of Labdacus continues through Laius, Antiope with Zethus and Amphion, and Niobe, whose children are shot by Apollo and Artemis. Laius, warned against fathering a son, exposes the infant Oedipus, who kills him unknowingly, answers the Sphinx's riddle, marries Jocasta and learns the truth.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.1.1–5Inachus, Io and the DanaidsThe line of Inachus of Argos runs through Phoroneus and Apis to Argus the All-seeing, whom Hermes kills while he guards Io, whom Zeus has turned into a cow. Io wanders to Egypt and bears Epaphus, whose descendants include the twins Belus and Agenor. Belus's twin sons Aegyptus and Danaus quarrel over the kingdom, Danaus flees to Argos with his fifty daughters, and they are married to Aegyptus's sons and kill them on the wedding night, all but Hypermnestra, who spares Lynceus.

Sophocles (1)

Sophocles, Electra 86–153Parodos: Electra's lament and the ChorusElectra, alone in front of the palace, cries out to the light and the air that she mourns her father every night and every day, and calls on the gods below and the Erinyes to send her brother. The Chorus of Mycenaean women ask why she wastes away in grief for Agamemnon, and tell her that weeping will not bring him back from Hades. She answers that it would be foolish to forget a murdered parent, and compares herself to the nightingale mourning Itys and to Niobe weeping in her rocky tomb.

Aristophanes (1)

Aristophanes, Frogs 899–940Agon: Euripides on Aeschylus' silent figures and bombastEuripides begins the attack by saying that Aeschylus brought on veiled mourners such as Achilles or Niobe who said nothing, and then filled the play with huge words that nobody could understand. Dionysus admits that he liked the silent mourners. Euripides then begins to describe how he took over a swollen and pompous art and slimmed it down.

Diodorus Siculus (2)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.71.1–4.75.6Asclepius, Aeacus, Pelops and the kings of TroyThe historian gives the birth and healing art of Asclepius and the descendants of Asopus' daughters, including Aeacus and his sons Peleus and Telamon. He then tells of Oenomaüs and the chariot race by which Pelops wins Hippodameia, and of Tantalus, and ends with the first kings of Troy, from Teucrus and Dardanus down to Priam.
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.14.1–4.16.4Heracles: the Olympic Games, the Giants and the AmazonsAfter the stables Heracles founds the Olympic Games and receives gifts from the gods. He fights on the side of the gods against the Giants at Pallene, frees Prometheus by shooting the eagle, and brings Eurystheus the man-eating horses of Diomedes. He then sails to the Pontus for the girdle of Hippolyte and defeats the Amazons.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.146–312NiobeThe fate of Arachne spreads through Lydia, but Niobe, queen of Thebes, takes no warning, and rebukes the women who are honouring Leto (Latona), boasting of her own noble birth, her husband's power and her fourteen children. Leto, angered, calls on Apollo and Artemis (Diana), and Apollo kills Niobe's seven sons as they ride and wrestle, and Artemis her seven daughters in their mother's presence. Niobe, bereft of all, turns to stone, and is carried by a whirlwind to Mount Sipylus, where she weeps.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.313–411The Lycian peasants; Marsyas; PelopsAfter Niobe's fate men worship Leto (Latona) more zealously, and one recalls the peasants of Lycia, who refused Leto water to drink when she came, wandering with her twins, and who were turned into frogs. Another tells of the satyr Marsyas, who challenged Apollo to a contest on the pipes and was flayed alive for his presumption. Pelops, the brother of Niobe, mourns for her, and his ivory shoulder, which the gods made for him after Tantalus served him up at a banquet, is shown.

Pausanias (4)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.21.1–7Athens: poets’ statues in the theatre, Niobe and the sanctuary of AsclepiusIn the theatre are statues of tragic and comic poets, with stories of Sophocles’ honours and Aeschylus’ vocation from Dionysus. Above it are the Gorgon’s head on the Acropolis wall and a cave with a tripod showing Niobe’s children being shot, which Pausanias compares with the rock Niobe on Mount Sipylus. He mentions the grave of Calos, the sanctuary of Asclepius, and a Sarmatian horse-hoof corselet, which leads to a digression on Sarmatian arms and linen corselets.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.21.1–10Argos: the market-place, the death of Pyrrhus and the head of MedusaIn and around the Argive market-place Pausanias notes the tomb of Cerdo, a temple of Asclepius, the tomb of Hypermnestra, the sanctuary of Trumpet Athena and the grave of Epimenides. He describes the marble building where Pyrrhus was cremated, the mound said to hold the Gorgon’s head with two rationalising accounts of Medusa, and the grave of Gorgophone. He ends with the stone trophy over the tyrant Laphaes and the sanctuary of Latona with the story of Chloris.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.34.1–12Methana and Hermionis: the coast and the old and new cities of HermionPausanias describes Methana, with its hot springs, the rite against the south-west wind and the Isles of Pelops, then the origins of Hermion and the Dorian settlement. He follows the road from Troezen to Hermion, past Cape Scyllaeum with its story of Scylla and Minos, the islands and capes of the coast, Mount Buporthmus and the promontory where old Hermion stood. He ends with the sights of the present city, including the temples of Aphrodite of the Deep Sea and of Demeter Warmth.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.2.1–7Arcadia: Lycaon and the wolf legend of Zeus LycaeusPausanias tells how Pelasgus' son Lycaon founded Lycosura, gave Zeus the surname Lycaean and founded the Lycaean games, which Pausanias thinks older than the Panathenaic games. Lycaon sacrificed a human child on the altar of Lycaean Zeus and was turned into a wolf, which Pausanias believes, arguing that in early days men became gods and the gods punished the wicked. He also reports that a man is said to turn into a wolf at each sacrifice and regain human shape after nine years if he abstains from human flesh. He warns that lovers of the marvellous build fiction on a foundation of truth.

Quintus Smyrnaeus (1)

Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 1.227–352Penthesileia's onslaughtPenthesileia kills Molion, Persinous, Eilissus, Antitheus and many more, and rides others down beneath her horse. Slaughter, Doom and the Fates move through the fight beside her. She breaks through the Argive ranks like a tigress, striking with her halberd and her javelin.

Nonnus of Panopolis (2)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 48.328–473Book 48: Aura insults Artemis; Nemesis is sent against herBathing beside Artemis, Aura stares at the goddess and mocks her breasts and her claim to virginity, boasting of her own boyish strength. Artemis, furious, appeals to Nemesis for vengeance. Nemesis pursues Aura in her griffin car and strikes her with her whip, and Eros makes Dionysos mad with love for the girl.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 14.228–320Book 14: Dionysos marches through PhrygiaDionysos sets out armed with a thyrsus and a horn of wine, and the army passes the rock of Niobe, which warns the Indians not to fight a god. In Ascania the people submit. Hera, in the shape of an Indian, urges the captain Astraios to fight, and he drives off the heralds Pan and the Satyrs.

Parthenius of Nicaea (1)

Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 33.1–36.6Assaon and Niobe; Corythus; Eulimene and Lycastus; Arganthone and RhesusIn one version of the Niobe story her father Assaon burns her children when she refuses him; she throws herself from a rock, and he kills himself. Corythus comes to Troy, falls in love with Helen and is killed by his father. Lycastus, lover of Eulimene, confesses when the lot falls on her to be sacrificed, and Apterus murders him. Arganthone loves Rhesus, who goes to the Trojan war and is killed, and she wanders calling his name until she dies of grief.