The women of Thebes walked in a line with laurel branches bound round their heads. Each carried incense to offer to the goddess Leto.
Then Queen Niobe stepped into their path, and the hem of her gold woven robe swept the ground. “Why offer incense to a goddess nobody can even see?”
Niobe pointed behind her. Seven sons and seven daughters stood in a row. “Leto bore two. I have borne fourteen.”