Editing Amphion and Zethus (section)

===Later misfortunes===
Amphion's wife Niobe had many children, but had become arrogant and because of this she insulted the goddess [[Leto]], who had only two children, [[Artemis]] and Apollo. Leto's children killed Niobe's children in retaliation (see [[Niobe]]). Niobe’s overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children’s deaths.<ref name=":0" /> In [[Ovid]], Amphion commits [[suicide]] out of grief; according to [[Telesilla]], Artemis and Apollo murder him along with his children. [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], however, writes that in his madness he tried to attack the temple of Apollo, and was killed by the god's arrows.<ref>Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, p. 539</ref>

Zethus had only one son, who died through a mistake of his mother Thebe, causing Zethus to kill himself.<ref name="Tripp"/>  In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', however, Zethus's wife is called [[Aëdon]], a daughter of [[Pandareus]] in book 19, who killed her son [[Itylus]] in a fit of madness and became a nightingale.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' Trans. Richmond Lattimore.  New York: Harper Collins, 1967, p. 295</ref> Later authors would clarify that Aëdon tried to kill Niobe and Amphion's firstborn [[Amaleus]] out of jealousy that Niobe had borne many children, while she and Zethus only had one.{{sfn|Pimentel|Simoes Rodrigues|2019|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DeayEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA201 201]}}{{sfn|Fowler|2000|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA341 341]}} However in the dark of the night, Aëdon by mistake killed Itylus, and in her mourning she was transformed into a nightingale by her father-in-law Zeus<ref>[[Eustathius of Thessalonica]], ''On Homer's Odyssey'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZP4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA215 19.710]</ref>{{sfn|Hansen|2002|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ezDlXl7gP9oC&pg=PA303 303]}} when Zethus began to chase her down in rage for murdering their son.<ref>[[Scholia]]st on the ''Odyssey'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=GBlgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA517 19.518]</ref> Alternatively, Aëdon was afraid that her husband (here, mistakenly perhaps, spelled [[Boreads|Zetes]]) was having an affair with a nymph, and that Itylus was assisting his father in his infidelity, so she killed him.<ref>[[Photios I of Constantinople]], ''[[Myriobiblon]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=HKUw3Ry7D0oC&pg=PA1583 Helladius Chrestomathia]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/m-r-wright-a-dictionary-of-classical-mythology/ | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | publisher = [[University of Patras]] | first = Rosemary M. | last = Wright | access-date = March 15, 2023 | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations}}</ref>

After the deaths of Amphion and Zethus, [[Laius]] returned to Thebes and became king.

Compare with [[Castor and Polydeuces]] (the [[Dioscuri]]) of Greece, and with [[Romulus and Remus]] of Rome.