22. The Gods Could be Cruelly Vindictive
Ancient Greek mythology is full of tales in which hubris is punished by the gods. In Niobe’s case, her hubris provoked Leto’s children, the gods Apollo and Artemis, to seek vengeance for the insult to their mom. They were highly protective of her, because she had suffered greatly on their behalf – see entry about Leto, below. In a flash, Apollo and Artemis, whose nicknames included “The Immortal Archers”, showed up at the citadel of Thebes. From its towers, they watched the Theban youths engaged in sports below, while the Latona festival in honor of their mother was ignored. So Apollo strung his golden bow, and shot down all seven of Niobe’s sons, one after the other. Not to be outdone, Artemis strung her bow, and slew all seven of Niobe’s daughters.
Niobe was left transfixed with grief and surrounded by the corpses of her offspring. Her children lay unburied for nine days, because the gods turned the Thebans into stone, until the tenth day, when they allowed the burials to proceed. Even then, the gods were still not done with Niobe. As if her punishment was not already horrible enough, Zeus piled on. He capped off the grieving mother’s misery by turning her into a pillar of stone, in which state she was left to continue to weep throughout eternity for her loss.