Note 7 — PART III.—THE HEROES.
Reading edition
The number of Niobe’s children varies materially. Homer (Il. xxiv., 602) gives her six sons and as many daughters. According to Hesiod and Pindar, she had ten sons and ten daughters; but the most common account, and that followed by the tragic poets, allows her fourteen children. Everywhere the number of sons and daughters appears to be equal. The story of Niobe was frequently treated of by the tragic poets, both Æschylus and Sophocles having written tragedies bearing her name.