The Gods Hit Hard
The Myth.
Niobe, wife of Amphion, King of Thebes, had a large number of children - between five and 10 of each sex, depending on the source - called Niobids. She was very proud of her children and boasted that she was superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Apollo and Artemis, whereupon the offended goddess sent her son and daughter to earth to avenge the insult. Apollo shot all Niobe's sons while they were out hunting on Cithaeron, and Artemis shot all her daughters in the house.
Just as Artemis was about to shoot the last child, Niobe in desperation shielded the girl and pleaded that this one, her youngest, be spared. While she was uttering this prayer, she was turned to stone; and a whirlwind whisked her away to her homeland, Phrygia, where she was placed on a mountaintop.
According to another tradition, Niobe, in her grief, went back to her father's land, and there she was turned into a rock on Mount Sipylus, an image of everlasting sorrow with water flowing down her face like tears.
The Sarcophagus.
The myth of Niobe is represented on Roman sarcophagi by means of two iconographic models. The first model, see the sarcophagus at Glyptothek in Munich, represents the killing of Niobids children within the domestic walls. According to the myth passed down by literary sources, the second model places the death of the Niobids in a rocky landscape while they are exercising on riding and hunting. Both the models doesn’t respect the chronology of events passed down by the myth, and combine the fate of the Niobids in one atrocious massacre that is represented as simultaneous to the eyes of the observer.
This sarcophagus, as the exemplar exhibited inside Venice's Archaeological Museum, belongs to the second model. The separation between boys and girls, and more generally, any temporal scansion of events is suppressed, and the tragedy is condensed in the image of a single mass slaughter that strikes at the same time the male and female children of Niobe.
The artist uses the whole iconographic arsenal available to describe the injuring, the pain and the agony of the innocent children. The deities responsible for Niobe's punishment are represented on the sides of the sarcophagus lid. Apollo and Artemis are flinging their arrows from the top toward the figures carved on underlying bass relief. The meaning of this representation is clear: the death is established by the gods and it comes from above. Servants, wet-nurse and an old pedagogue are attempting to save the Niobids, the unfortunate parents are carved in the corners of the main frieze. On the far left corner their father Amphion is trying to protect a fatally injured son with his shield. The man is standing strong and fully armed, but absolutely powerless. The message is simple and clear: despite his strength Amphion becomes an example of the human helplessness in facing death. The virile “virtus” is ineffective against the omnipotence and arbitrariness of the gods. On the opposite side of the frieze, Niobe too is unable to save the smallest of his daughters. Her head is turned towards the sky from which the arrows fall killing her children. Her gaze is full of horror, and recalls the description of this tragedy made by Ovid:
“Sexque datis leto diversaque vulnera passis
ultima restabat. Quam toto corpore mater,
tota veste tegens “unam minimamque relinque
de multis minimam posco” clamavit “et unam.”
Dumque rogat, pro qua rogat, occidit. Orba resedit
exanimes inter natos natasque virumque,
deriguitque malis”
One child remained. Then in a frenzy-fear
the mother, as she covered her with all
her garments and her body, wailed—“Oh, leave
me this one child! the youngest of them all!
My darling daughter—only leave me one!”
But even while she was entreating for its life—
the life was taken from her only child.
Childless— she crouched beside her slaughtered sons,
her lifeless daughters, and her husband's corpse.
Ovid, Met. VI, 279 – 303
P Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses – Brokes More, Ed.
Niobe was the epitome of the grieving parent and could be used as a consolation to the bereaved.
The Vatican Niobid's sarcophagus was found in a funeral building with another sarcophagus housed in the Vatican Museums, and decorated by scenes from the myth of Orestes. They were placed opposite each other on marble architraves decorated with Atlas' figures.
The sarcophagus dates from 130-140 AD.
Source: Zanker P. & Ewald BC., “Vivere con i Miti. L’iconografia dei sarcofagi Romani”
Marble sarcophagus
130-140 AD
Vatican City State, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Profano
The Gods Hit Hard
The Myth.
Niobe, wife of Amphion, King of Thebes, had a large number of children - between five and 10 of each sex, depending on the source - called Niobids. She was very proud of her children and boasted that she was superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Apollo and Artemis, whereupon the offended goddess sent her son and daughter to earth to avenge the insult. Apollo shot all Niobe's sons while they were out hunting on Cithaeron, and Artemis shot all her daughters in the house.
Just as Artemis was about to shoot the last child, Niobe in desperation shielded the girl and pleaded that this one, her youngest, be spared. While she was uttering this prayer, she was turned to stone; and a whirlwind whisked her away to her homeland, Phrygia, where she was placed on a mountaintop.
According to another tradition, Niobe, in her grief, went back to her father's land, and there she was turned into a rock on Mount Sipylus, an image of everlasting sorrow with water flowing down her face like tears.
The Sarcophagus.
The myth of Niobe is represented on Roman sarcophagi by means of two iconographic models. The first model, see the sarcophagus at Glyptothek in Munich, represents the killing of Niobids children within the domestic walls. According to the myth passed down by literary sources, the second model places the death of the Niobids in a rocky landscape while they are exercising on riding and hunting. Both the models doesn’t respect the chronology of events passed down by the myth, and combine the fate of the Niobids in one atrocious massacre that is represented as simultaneous to the eyes of the observer.
This sarcophagus, as the exemplar exhibited inside Venice's Archaeological Museum, belongs to the second model. The separation between boys and girls, and more generally, any temporal scansion of events is suppressed, and the tragedy is condensed in the image of a single mass slaughter that strikes at the same time the male and female children of Niobe.
The artist uses the whole iconographic arsenal available to describe the injuring, the pain and the agony of the innocent children. The deities responsible for Niobe's punishment are represented on the sides of the sarcophagus lid. Apollo and Artemis are flinging their arrows from the top toward the figures carved on underlying bass relief. The meaning of this representation is clear: the death is established by the gods and it comes from above. Servants, wet-nurse and an old pedagogue are attempting to save the Niobids, the unfortunate parents are carved in the corners of the main frieze. On the far left corner their father Amphion is trying to protect a fatally injured son with his shield. The man is standing strong and fully armed, but absolutely powerless. The message is simple and clear: despite his strength Amphion becomes an example of the human helplessness in facing death. The virile “virtus” is ineffective against the omnipotence and arbitrariness of the gods. On the opposite side of the frieze, Niobe too is unable to save the smallest of his daughters. Her head is turned towards the sky from which the arrows fall killing her children. Her gaze is full of horror, and recalls the description of this tragedy made by Ovid:
“Sexque datis leto diversaque vulnera passis
ultima restabat. Quam toto corpore mater,
tota veste tegens “unam minimamque relinque
de multis minimam posco” clamavit “et unam.”
Dumque rogat, pro qua rogat, occidit. Orba resedit
exanimes inter natos natasque virumque,
deriguitque malis”
One child remained. Then in a frenzy-fear
the mother, as she covered her with all
her garments and her body, wailed—“Oh, leave
me this one child! the youngest of them all!
My darling daughter—only leave me one!”
But even while she was entreating for its life—
the life was taken from her only child.
Childless— she crouched beside her slaughtered sons,
her lifeless daughters, and her husband's corpse.
Ovid, Met. VI, 279 – 303
P Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses – Brokes More, Ed.
Niobe was the epitome of the grieving parent and could be used as a consolation to the bereaved.
The Vatican Niobid's sarcophagus was found in a funeral building with another sarcophagus housed in the Vatican Museums, and decorated by scenes from the myth of Orestes. They were placed opposite each other on marble architraves decorated with Atlas' figures.
The sarcophagus dates from 130-140 AD.
Source: Zanker P. & Ewald BC., “Vivere con i Miti. L’iconografia dei sarcofagi Romani”
Marble sarcophagus
130-140 AD
Vatican City State, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Profano