niobium n.

metallic element, 1809, Modern Latin, named 1802 by its discoverer, Swedish chemist Anders Ekberg (1767-1813), for Tantalus, according to Ekberg partly because of its inability to absorb acid recalled Tantalus' punishment in the afterlife (see tantalize). Sometimes it is said to be so called from the difficulty scientists faced in obtaining a pure specimen.

in Greek mythology, a queen of Thebes, daughter of Tantalus, married to Amphion, she was changed to a stone while weeping for her numerous children (slain, after she boasted of them overmuch, by Artemis and Apollo); hence the name is used figuratively for bereavement and woe. The name is said to mean literally "snowy; snowy-bright." By scientists the name was given to a type of trilobites and an asteroid. Related: Niobean.