Motif
mourner transformed into weeping stone
mourner_transformed_into_weeping_stone
A motif of the Lament, Mourning, and Tragic Recognition family, within the sub-family Tears, Transformation, and Memorialization. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.
3 occurrences
3 traditions
greek (1) · greek roman (1) · roman (1)
greek
-
The Iliad ARGUMENT. / BOOK XXIV. / ARGUMENT. / THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY OF HECTOR.; lines 22976-23120 confidence: high
Achilles recounts Niobe's twelve children slain by Apollo and Cynthia after her boast against Latona; Jove turns the people to stone, the gods bury the children, and Niobe becomes a weeping rock on Sipylus.
Niobe becomes a rock on Sipylus and forever pours tears or a rill as her own monument of woe.
read in the book →
greek roman
-
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome VENUS. / HELIOS (SOL). / EOS (AURORA). / PHOEBUS-APOLLO.; lines 2529-2596 confidence: high
Amphion kills himself; Niobe sits among the dead, and the gods turn her into a stone on Mount Siphylus that continues to shed tears.
Niobe, widowed and childless, is turned by the gods into a stone that continues to shed tears.
read in the book →
roman
-
The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION. / BOOK THE SIXTH. / EXPLANATION.; lines 9743-9815 confidence: high
“Still did she weep on; and, enveloped in a hurricane of mighty wind, she was borne away to her native land.”
The passage says the weeping figure dissolves into marble and that the marble still distils tears.
read in the book →