Niobe

1. Greekhuman sciencesA daughter of Tantalus, said to have turned into stone while weeping for her children.
2. Greekhuman sciencesA daughter of Phoroneus and Teledice.
3. astronomy71 Niobe, a main belt asteroid.
4. A female given name from Ancient Greek.

plural Niobes

1. A crying woman; a woman who is bereaved or inconsolable.First known use 16th c.

   With which she followed my poore Fathers body / Like Niobe, all teares.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   3 more examples

   There is a word will Priam turne to stone, Make wells and Niobe’s of the maides and wiues.

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene xi]

   But when a man has been ranging, like the painful bee, from flower to flower, perhaps for a month together, and the thoughts of home and wife begin to have their charms with him, to be received by a Niobe, who, like a wounded vine, weeps her vitals away, while she but involuntarily curls about him; how shall I be able to bear that?

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC

   Here poor Mrs Vincy's spirit quite broke down, and her Niobe throat and good-humoured face were sadly convulsed.

   1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 26, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book III