according to the fictions of the ancient poets, was the daughter of Tantalus, and the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, by whom she had seven sons and as many daughters. Having become so proud of her fertility and high birth, as to prefer herself before Latona, and to slight the sacrifices offered up by the Theban matrons to that goddess, Apollo and Diana, the children of Latona, resented this contempt; the former slew the male children, and the latter the female, upon which Niobe was struck dumb with grief, and remained without sensation. Cicero was of opinion, that on this account the poets feigned that she had been turned into stone.