ARTemis

 taking a rest. after the  Niobe happening.
                       

The Vanity of Niobe 

The Massacre of Niobe's Children

Some sources claim that it was Leto herself who was affronted by the remarks of Niobe, and others claim that it was Apollo and Artemis who were angered for the slight to their mother. In either case, it was Apollo and Artemis who travelled to Thebes, and when there they unleashed their arrows.

The target for their wrath was not Niobe, but the children of the Queen of Thebes, and the pair of gods would kill them all. Some say it was Apollo who would shoot the sons, whilst Artemis shot the girls.

Amphion and Niobe were not killed during the massacre of their children, although it is commonly said that Amphion committed suicide when he found all of his children dead.
 
For nine days the bodies of the deceased children would go unburied, for Zeus had turned the people of Thebes to stone to prevent them assisting the impious Niobe. Niobe herself was said to be too distraught to do the burying, for the whole period the Theban queen was said to have wept, not moving or eating during that period.


Upon Mount Sipylus Niobe would pray to Zeus to end her suffering, and in response to the prayer Zeus transformed Niobe into a rock that wept tears for evermore; some sources claim that it was Apollo who did the transforming of Niobe. 
 

        
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 1. 905 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"The Child of Zeus, the tireless Huntress Artemis sleeping, what time her feet forwearied are with following lions with her flying shafts over the hills far-stretching."

   

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 22. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The Eleans, I think, called Artemis Elaphiaia from the hunting of the deer (elaphos)."
 

Ovid, Heroides 4. 87 ff :
"You practise the ways of girded Diana [Artemis] . . . and you should imitate the weapons of your Diana--if you never cease to bend it, will grow slack." 

 

Homer, Iliad 21. 470 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Artemis of the wilderness (agrotera), lady of wild beasts (potnia theron)."  
 

Ovid, Fasti 4. 751 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"I entered a forbidden wood . . . forgive my offence . . . Keep from our sight the Dryades and Diana's [Artemis'] bath and Faunus [Pan] lying in the fields at noon."

 

Homer, Iliad 21. 470 & 483 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Artemis of the wilderness (agrotera), lady of wild beasts (potnia theron) . . . Zeus has made you [Artemis] a lion among women, and given you leave to kill any at your pleasure . . . you hunt down the ravening beasts in the mountains and deer of the wilds." 

 

(Book XXIII) “…and Artemis slew the daughters, because Niobe had
vaunted herself against Leto; she said Leto had borne two children only, whereas she had herself borne many- whereon the two killed the many. Nine days did they lie weltering, and there was none to bury them, for the son of Saturn turned the people into stone; but on the tenth day the gods in heaven themselves buried them, and Niobe then took food, being worn out with weeping.”

www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis…

www.rwaag.org/artemis

imythology.wikispaces.com/Dian…

www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/n…
  "Wants to be a hunter again,
Wants to see the world alone again"

Dido