The slaughter of Niobe and her children, shot by arrows from the bows of Apollo and Artemis, is a subject more common in vase painting than in sculpture. Thanks to a description by the writer Pausanias, we know that one of the best known depictions in marble was on the base of the throne of Zeus in his temple at Olympia.

This heavily restored Roman relief may be inspired by that long-lost prototype. It is unusual in that it actually shows the goddess Artemis, usually omitted in other illustrations of the myth, firing her bow