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Other different names were also mentioned, including Amaleus, Amyclas and Meliboea (also in Apollodorus, see below). Manto, the seeress daughter of Tiresias, overheard Niobe's remark and bid the Theban women placate Leto, in vain. Apollo and Artemis slew all the children of Niobe with their arrows, Apollo shooting the sons, Artemis the daughters.
Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobe's daughters and Apollo killed Niobe's sons. According to some versions, at least two of Niobe's children (usually Meliboea, along with her brother Amyclas in other renderings) was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo for having sworn revenge.
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.
Accordingly, Apollo killed Niobe's sons, and Artemis her daughters. According to some versions of the myth, among the Niobids, Chloris and her brother Amyclas were not killed because they prayed to Leto. Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge. [citation needed]
Niobe, a boastful woman, attracted the wrath of Artemis and her brother Apollo, who were furious at Niobe for taunting their mother. Artemis then decided to kill all of her daughters while Apollo killed all of her sons, thus all of her children were killed. Amphion committed suicide after the death of his beloved children.
Meliboea was the only one (or one of two) spared when Artemis and Apollo killed the Niobids in retribution for Niobe's insult to their mother Leto, bragging that she had many children while Leto had only two. Meliboea was so frightened by the ordeal, she turned permanently pale, changing her name to Chloris ("pale one").
Apollo, enraged, drove the donkeys mad which then began to devour the entire family. Leto and Artemis felt sorry for Clinis, his third son and his daughter, who had done nothing to deserve such fate. Apollo allowed his mother and sister to save those three, and the goddesses changed them into birds before they could be killed by the donkeys. [77]
Amphion's wife Niobe had many children, but had become arrogant and because of this she insulted the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Artemis and Apollo. Leto's children killed Niobe's children in retaliation (see Niobe). Niobe’s overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children’s deaths. [5]