Apollo and Diana are both hunters and carry bows and arrows. One day Niobe, queen of Thebes, boasted that she had more children than Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, and that her children were more beautiful.

Latona called upon her children to punish Niobe for her pride, and they shot their arrows at the children of the boasting Niobe. Soon all were slain, although their mother, in her grief, tried to protect those she loved so well. Apollo killed the seven handsome sons, and Diana aimed her arrows at the seven lovely daughters.

Niobe grieved so over the loss of her dear children that she turned into stone, but her tears still continued to flow.

There is a room in a famous gallery in Florence, Italy, called the Niobe room, because here are placed the famous statues of Niobe and her fourteen children, trying, in vain, to escape the fatal arrows of the divine archers.

Some people believe that this story means that the rays of the sun and moon are harmful. But others say that it only shows that Apollo, the sun, battles with Niobe and her children, who are the powers of winter. When his rays have overcome them, Niobe dissolves in tears, and the cold snows melt and disappear.