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[614] 614-17. “ἀθετοῦνται στίχοι δ́, ὅτι οὐκ ἀκόλουθοι τῶι “ἡ δ᾽ ἄρα σίτου μνήσατ᾽.” εἰ γὰρ ἀπελιθώθη, πῶς σίτια προσηνέγκατο; καὶ ἡ παραμυθία γελοία: φάγε, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ Νιόβη ἔφαγε καὶ ἀπελιθώθη. ἔστι δὲ καὶ Ἡσιόδεια τῶι χαρακτῆρι, καὶ μᾶλλόν γε τὸ “ἀμφ᾽ Ἀχελώϊον ἐρρώσαντο.” καὶ τρὶς κατὰ τὸ συνεχὲς τὸ ἐν. πῶς δὲ καὶ λίθος γενομένη θεῶν ἐκ κήδεα πέσσει; προηθετοῦντο δὲ καὶ παρ᾽ Ἀριστοφάνει”, The An.last two arguments are not valid; the repetition of “ἐν” can be paralleled in 22.503-4 (cf. also 11.479-80); and the legend told that the water trickling down the rock-image actually was a perpetuation of Niobe's grief in stone. The expression ἐρρώσαντο for dance is Hesiodean as Ar. said; cf. Theog. 8 “χοροὺς ἐνεποιήσαντο καλούς Theog., i῾μερόεντας, ἐπερρώσαντο δὲ ποσσίν”, and also Hymn. Ven. 261 “μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι καλὸν χορὸν ἐρρώσαντο”. But this is a very natural specialization of the Homeric sense more nimbly, 1.529, 11.50, 16.166, 18.411, 23.367, Od. 23.3, Od. 24.69. It has further been urged that the expression φασί is not like the Epic style, for mythological facts are within the poet's own knowledge. But the expression can be paralleled from 2.783, Od. 6.42 “Οὔλυμπόνδ̓, ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ ἔμμεναι” as well as from 19.416, q.v. Further, Niobe was turned into stone at her own prayer, not as a punishment; thus the mention of her will not deter Priam from following her example. The arguments for rejection are therefore quite insufficient. The connexion of thought will be ‘Do not abstain from food on the ground that to eat is a slighting of the mourner's duty; even Niobe, type of the disconsolate, ate; and so far was this from interfering with her expression of faithful sorrow that, by the favour of the gods, her grief was actually immortalized in stone. So mayest thou eat now, and yet hereafter (“ἔπειτά κεν”, 619) duly mourn thy son.’ The lines far from being superfluous thus prove indispensable to the thought. All antiquity knew of the stone figure of Niobe which was still to be seen on Sipylos. It has generally been recognized in a rude figure in front of a recess in the face of a cliff near Smyrna. This has owing to weathering but a distant resemblance to a human being, but that it is a work of men's hands has been placed beyond a doubt by Mr. Simpson, Mr. Sayce, and others who have examined it. According to the latter it is ‘the likeness of the great goddess of Carchemish, and the cartouches engraved by the side of it, partly in Hittite and partly in Egyptian characters, shew that it was carved in the time of Ramses-Sesostris himself.’ An inscr. of Roman date shews that the figure is ‘Plastene, Mother of the Gods.’ Pausanias, himself, it appears, a native of the district, describes the figure thus (i. 21. 5): “ἡ δὲ πλησίον μὲν πέτρα καὶ κρημνός ἐστιν, οὐδὲν παρόντι σχῆμα παρεχόμενος γυναικὸς οὔτε ἄλλως οὔτε πενθούσης: εἰ δέ γε πορρωτέρω γένοιο, δεδακρυμένην δόξεις ὁρᾶν καὶ κατηφῆ γύναικα”. See also v. 13. 7. Another Smyrnaean, Quintus (i. 299 ff.), gives a similar description in metre. (See Jebb on Soph. Ant. 831.) But it is clear that they are not referring to what is now called the Niobe; the description does not correspond closely, as the figure of which we know never ‘weeps,’ and is said to look more like a human being from a short distance than from a great (see Prof. Ramsay in J. H. S. iii. 61 ff.). It is very probable that the ancient Niobe is to be identified with some natural rock further inland; a recent traveller, Schweisthal, claims to have found such a one exactly answering the conditions, but his identification is not satisfactory. A full and clear account of the whole question will be found in Frazer Paus. iii. 552 ff.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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