Niobe

Niobe，the queen of Thebes，had indeed good reason to beproud of her herself ．Both her father and mother were gods．Her husband was a capable and outstanding musician．And she was both wealthy and powerful．But what madeher the happiest lady in the world was her fourteen children，seven manly sons and seven beautiful daughters．They were allso strong and fair that the whole world looked upon them with admiration．

It happened at the time that every spring the Theban womengathered at the temple of Leto to offer flowers at the altars of the great mother．She had given birth to two grand children，Apollo and Artemis．Her women showed a great deal of loyaltyand respect to her．This made Niobe jealous and angry．Whenthe nuns of Leto called the women again to the sacred place ofthe mistress of Zeus one spring，Niobe decided to put an end to the foolish act forever．In her pretty flowing robe she came to the women and blamed the crowd for their mad ...