There was such a strange sadness in the eyes that gazed at him that he felt a terror which he could not explain. […] I promise you that Minerva will grant it.” […] But the stories that she pictured were all chosen to show that even the gods could sometimes make mistakes. […] She told them that Niobe had dared to compare herself with their mother, that she’ had called her children greater than the gods, and had boasted that fortune could not harm her. […] In all that vast crowd, she was the only one who dared to hope that Jason would be successful.