Name:	Niobe
Picture:
Description:	Cast from a complete Roman copy of a Hellenistic group. Florence, Uffizi gallery. H. 0.9m. Bust of Niobe, looking pleadingly at the twins Apollo and Artemis (not part of the original group) as she shelters her youngest daughters behind her own body. Her hair is bound by a fillet and tumbles down her back and shoulders. She wears a sleeveless chiton.
Date:	c. 320-280 B.C.
Discussion:	Pliny attributed this sculpture to either Skopas or Praxiteles. It brims with pathos, Niobe's expression a mixture of horror and pleading as she pays for her foolish boast that her children were better than those of Leto (Apollo and Artemis). See Robertson 1981: 163.