Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Amaleus () is the name of the eldest of the

Niobids In Greek mythology, the Niobids were the children of Amphion of Thebes and Niobe, slain by Apollo and Artemis because Niobe, born of the royal house of Phrygia, had boastfully compared the greater number of her own offspring with those of Leto, ...

, the twelve or fourteen children of

Amphion There are several characters named Amphion in Greek mythology: * Amphion, son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin brother of Zethus (see Amphion and Zethus). Together, they are famous for building Thebes. Pausanias recounts an Egyptian legend acco ...

, king of Thebes, by his wife Queen

Niobe Niobe (; : Nióbē) was in Greek mythology a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. She was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Niobe is mentioned by Achilles in Homer's ''Iliad ...

. Although the Niobids are primarily notable for the myth of Niobe's blasphemous boast against the goddess

Leto In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Leto (; ) is a childhood goddess, the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe (Titaness), Phoebe, the sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis.Hesiod, ''Theogony' ...

, Amaleus has a unique appearance of his own in myth, where an attempt on his life was made by his aunt,

Aëdon Aëdon () was in Greek mythology, the daughter of Pandareus of Ephesus. According to Homer, she was the wife of Amphion and Zethus, Zethus, and the mother of Itylus.Homer, ''Odyssey'19.517/ref> Aëdon features in two different stories, one set i ...

, wife to his father's brother.

Etymology

The ancient Greek proper name might be connected to the Greek noun (''amalós''), meaning 'soft'. A son of Amphion named Homoloeus () appears as an eponym in a scholium on

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

Mythology

Aëdon

Amaleus had many siblings and only one cousin, Itylus, the son of his uncle Zethus by his wife,

. All the Niobids but especially Amaleus got along greatly with cousin Itylus; the two boys slept together in the same room and, in some accounts, bed.

Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; ; ) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica and is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is most noted for his stand against the sack of Thessalonica by the No ...

, ''On Homer's Odyssey'
19.710
/ref> However Aëdon deeply resented Niobe for having borne so many children while she only had one, so she conceived a plan to kill Amaleus, who was the firstborn child. She instructed Itylus to sleep in the back of the room, or in the innermost position of the bed that night, but Itylus forgot about his mother's orders. So that night when Aëdon crept up into the room wielding a dagger and planning to murder the unsuspecting Amaleus, she ended up killing her own child Itylus instead. In another version Aëdon succeeded in killing Amaleus, but immediately took the life of her own son as well, in fear of Niobe's reaction.

Niobe's boast

Amaleus's mother Niobe was exceedingly proud of the vast progeny she had produced for her husband. In the most known narrative concerning Niobe and her children, she boasted of being a greater mother than the goddess

, for she had many children, while Leto only had two. Leto informed her two children, the archer gods

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

and

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

, and they took the matter in their own hands; they slew all the Niobids. It was said that the boys, whom Apollo slew, were killed while they were hunting in the woods. Their father, Amphion, committed suicide at the sight of the lifeless bodies of his sons, or was slain by Apollo while storming his temple in protest. Niobe herself would be transformed into rock following the slaying of the daughters. In a rarer version, Niobe's father, named Asson instead, fell in love with Niobe, but she would not yield to his incestuous embraces, so he invited all her children to a banquet and burnt them all to death in revenge. Parthenius, ''Suffering in Love'
33
/ref>

References

Bibliography

Apollodorus Apollodorus ( Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: :''Note: A ...

, ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
*
Online version at Internet Archive.
* * * * * *

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, ''The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes''. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Hyginus, Gaius Julius
''The Myths of Hyginus''
Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. * *

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'', Brookes More, Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* * Pausanias, ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* *

External links

* {{Authority control Niobids