Ni|o|be

Ni|o|be «NY oh bee», noun.

1. Greek Mythology. a mother whose fourteen beautiful children were slain by Apollo and Artemis because she boasted about them. Turned by Zeus into a stone fountain, she weeps forever for her children. She was the daughter of Tantalus.

2. Figurative. a weeping or inconsolable mother: »

The Niobe of nations! there she [Rome] stands, Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe (Byron).