| 释义 |
Niobe|ˈnaɪəbiː|
[f. Gr. νιόβη.]
In Greek legend, the name of the daughter of Tantalus, supposed to have been changed into stone while weeping for her children; hence applied to a woman or female comparable to her. Also fig.
In scientific use the name has been given to certain genera of trilobites, molluscs, and weaver-birds, and to one of the asteroids, discovered by R. Luther in 1861.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 62 A more than second Niobe, bewailing her seauen fold sorrow. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. x. 19 There is a word will Priam turne to stone; Make wels, and Niobes of the maides and wiues. 1625Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 46/1 Justice weeps out her Eyes, now truly Blind; To Niobe's the remnant Vertues turn. 1778Foote Trip Calais ii. Wks. 1799 II. 352 Indeed, the poor gentlewoman was a perfect Niobe. 1781Cowper Truth 174 The streaming tears Channel her cheeks—a Niobe appears. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. lxxiv, The Niobe of nations! there she stands, Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe. 1842Tennyson Walking to Mail 92 She was left alone Upon her tower, the Niobe of swine.
Hence Niobean |naɪəˈbiːən|, a., pertaining to, resembling that of, Niobe.
1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 352 A Niobëan daughter, one arm out, Appealing to the bolts of Heaven. 1857Dufferin Lett. High Lat. (ed. 3) 321 The last survivor of this Niobean family. |