Niobe (Sophocles play)
Niobe is a lost tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It was performed in Athens in the 5th century BC and is based on the famous myth of Niobe, a queen of Thebes who bragged that she had more children than the goddess Leto. Only fragments of the play survive today.
In Sophocles’ version, Niobe has fourteen children—seven sons and seven daughters—with her husband Amphion. The story opens with Niobe boasting about her many children, which incurs the anger of Artemis and Apollo. The gods punish her pride by killing her children.
The boys are slain first; Amphion, Niobe’s husband, dies after challenging Apollo. Artemis then enters Niobe’s palace to kill the girls while Niobe pleads for mercy and mourns deeply. In some versions, one daughter survives, often named Meliboea or Chloris, while the others die.
A Theban chorus accompanies Niobe, sharing her grief but offering no help. The ending of the play is not preserved in the fragments, but most accounts place Niobe’s departure or sorrowful ending after these events.
Scholars debate how Sophocles staged such brutal scenes with many children and only a few actors. Some suggest the deaths happened offstage, others imagine clever stage machinery or a secondary chorus representing the children. There is also discussion about whether Artemis might have shot arrows from within the palace or from an unseen vantage point.
The Niobe myth itself comes from earlier stories, and Niobe is ultimately turned into a weeping rock on Mount Sipylus as punishment for her hubris. Sophocles’ Niobe is one of several versions of the tale, and it survives only in fragments.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:16 (CET).