24. Greek Deities Didn’t Like It When Mortals Talked Smack About Them
Niobe, in Greek mythology, was a daughter of Tantalus, who got his own dose of terrible divine punishment from the gods – see previous entry. She was a queen of Thebes, and was blessed with great fortune. However, she committed the sin of hubris – a mixture of extreme pride, dangerous overconfidence, and overweening arrogance. For that, the gods subjected her to a terrible punishment. It was a great fall for a blessed mortal who in addition to her noble birth and descent from a king, was also a stunning beauty. She took great pride in both her good birth and her good looks.
What Niobe took the greatest pride in was her large brood of fourteen children – seven sons, and seven daughters. One day, the people of Thebes went out to celebrate the feast of Latona – a religious festival in honor of Leto, the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis. Unfortunately, Niobe uttered something impious: she mocked Leto. That impiety shocked the Thebans, and they returned to their daily pursuits in awestruck silence and trepidation. As seen below, they had good reason for trepidation, because as Niobe found out, taunting Leto turned out to be a very bad idea.