Definition of the subject derives from the scene taking place in the foreground rather than the presence of the names inscribed next to the characters themselves, thus enabling us to place this picture in one of the most dramatic episodes in Greek mythology. Written in Greek capital letters are the names of LHTW Leto, NIOBH Niobe, FOIBH Phoebe, AGLAIA Aglaia, ILEARA Hilaeira. In this way, what appears at first glance to be a happy leisure scene showing the kneeling young women throwing and catching on the backs of their hands an ever-increasing number of astragals (small articulating bones from the hoof of a sheep) is transformed into a tragic prelude of death.
The story is well-known: Niobe, queen of Lydia, boasts that she is more prolific than Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and is punished with the slaughter of her seven sons (or more, depending on the version of the myth) struck down by Apollo during a hunting party, and her seven daughters, whom Artemis kills with darts in the palace. Here we see the final moment leading up to this culmination, but clearly Niobe has already uttered the infamous phrase and has been pushed by Phoebe towards Leto, whom she touches beseechingly; the goddess, however, is drawing back, gathering up her mantle. In the top left-hand corner we can read three clearly marked lines:

This is probably a Neo-Attic reworking of a Greek original and the custom of writing the names next to the characters themselves is a sure sign of a deliberate archaism which was fashionable in the first century A.D.