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Niobe (; (:ni.óbɛː)) was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology. Her father was the ruler of a city called "Tantalis" or "the city of Tantalus", or "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the 1st century C.E., although few traces remain today.〔There is a "Throne" conjecturally associated with Pelops in Yarıkkaya locality in Mount Sipylus. There are two tombs called "Tomb of Tantalus" near the summits of the neighboring mountains of Yamanlar and Mount Sipylus in western Turkey, sources by respective scholars differing on the associations that may be based on the one or the other.〕 Her father is referred to as "Phrygian" and sometimes even as "King of Phrygia", although his city was located in the western extremity of Anatolia where Lydia was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more inland. References to his son and Niobe's brother as "Pelops the Lydian" led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be good grounds for believing that she belonged to a primordial house of Lydia. She was already mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'' which relates her proud ''hubris'', for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis, with the loss of all her children, and her nine days of abstention from food during which time her children lay unburied.〔''Iliad'' 24.603–610.〕 Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos,〔The river Acheloos in Niobe's story should not confused with its much larger namesake, the Achelous River in mainland Greece. Acheloos mentioned by Homer could correspond to the modern-day ''Çaybaşı Stream'' which flows around the slopes of the Mount Sipylus in immediate proximity of The Weeping Rock associated with her. It is worth noting that the plain between the coast and the ancient city of Adramyttium was also called "Thebe" (the present-day Edremit Plain).〕 and although being a stone, she broods over the sorrows sent from the Gods".〔''Iliad'' xxiv.602ff〕 Later writers〔Ps-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheke'', iii.5.6, iii.〕 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.〔According to Iliad XXIV, there were twelve, six male, six female. Aelian (''Varia Historia'' xii. 36): "But Hesiod says they were nine boys and ten girls— unless after all the verses are not Hesiod but are falsely ascribed to him as are many others." Nine would make a triple triplet, triplicity being character of numerous sisterhoods (J.E. Harrison, ''A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903), "The Maiden-Trinities" pp 286ff); ten would equate to a full two hands of male dactyls, while twelve would resonate with the number of Olympian gods.〕 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) 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〔The return of Niobe from Thebes to her Lydian homeland is recorded in pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheke'' 3.46.〕 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" ((トルコ語:Ağlayan Kaya)), since rainwater seeps through its porous limestone. The only Niobid spared stayed greenish pale from horror for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was called Chloris (the pale one).〔Pausanias.''Description of Greece'' 2.21.9 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Niobe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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