Niobe, << NY oh bee >>, was a queen in Greek mythology who was famous for eternally mourning her dead children. Niobe was the daughter of King Tantalus and Queen Dione, and married Amphion, king of Thebes. She boasted that because of her six (or seven) fine sons and six (or seven) beautiful daughters, she deserved worship more than the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Apollo and Artemis. In anger, Leto ordered Apollo and Artemis to kill Niobe’s children with their arrows. As Niobe wept unceasingly for her children, the gods in pity changed her into a rock that spouted water like tears. According to tradition, this rock with a waterfall below stands on Mount Sipylon in what is now Turkey.
