Niobe of the Voreni

Niobe of the Voreni
Rome character
First appearance	"How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic"
Last appearance	"Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus (No God Can Stop a Hungry Man)"
Portrayed by	Indira Varma
Information
Gender	Female
Title	Plebeian
Family	Evander Pulchio (brother-in-law) Lyde (sister)
Spouse(s)	Lucius Vorenus (husband)
Children	Vorena the Elder (daughter) Vorena the Younger (daughter) Lucius (son)

Niobe, wife of Lucius Vorenus, is a fictional character in the HBO/BBC/RAI original television series Rome, played by Indira Varma.

Her namesake was the daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, whose seven sons and seven daughters were slain by Apollo and Diana, because, on the strength of her numerous progeny, she triumphed over Latona. Niobe herself was changed into a stone, which was transported in a whirlwind to the top of Sipylus, and has ever since remained wet with tears.

Niobe married Vorenus when she was "thirteen summers" old. After the Gallic War took her husband away for eight years, she was forced to deal with further hardship when she was mistakenly told that Vorenus had been killed, and his salary was stopped. She was astonished to learn that Vorenus was still alive. Vorenus was likewise astonished and enraged to find Niobe holding an infant, until Niobe told him that the child was his grandson—the son of his now-teenaged daughter, Vorena the Elder, who was quickly arranged to marry the presumed father of the child.

The reintegration of Lucius Vorenus into family life was made more difficult by Niobe's secret: the "grandson" Lucius was actually her son by her brother-in-law, Evander Pulchio, who had been her lover in Lucius' absence. The tensions between Niobe, her sister Lyde, and her brother-in-law did not make the restructuring of the family's life any easier, and Vorenus' personality did not help the situation: he came across as cold and mean, and Niobe described him as a "brute."

Family tensions did not lessen when Evander mysteriously disappeared—murdered by Titus Pullo and Gaius Octavian when they learned the truth about Niobe and Vorenus' "grandson." Pullo covered up the murder by claiming that Evander was rumored to have been murdered by members of the criminal underworld due to gambling debts. Niobe devoted her time to helping Lyde adapt, something that Vorenus felt interfered with his attempts to reforge a relationship with his wife.

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Wikipedia