哭石源自希腊神话中尼俄柏的悲剧故事。尼俄柏出身显赫，爷爷是宙斯。丈夫是能用音乐让石头自动组成城墙的忒拜国王。他们有七儿七女，尼俄柏因此自夸，蔑视太阳神和月神的母亲勒托。勒托遂遣太阳神和月神射杀尼俄柏的十四个儿女，她丈夫也因此自杀。

尼俄柏在荷马史诗中似乎就有提及，作为丧子之痛的借代。我所见完整的故事出自奥维德的《变形记》。结尾是这样：

(经典的Loeb丛书拉丁英文对照本309页)

Her very tongue is silent, frozen to her mouth's roof, andher veins can move no longer; her neck cannot bend nor her arms move nor herfeet go. Within also her vitals are stone. But still she weeps; and, caught upin a strong, whirling wind, she is rapt away to her own native land. There, seton a mountain's peak, she weeps; and even to this day tears trickle from themarble.

(手头有纸质版Gregory的诗译150页)

Her neck unbendmg, arms, feetmotionless,

Even her entrails had been turnedto stone.

Yet eyes stIll wept, and she waswhirled away

In a great wind back to hernative country,

Where on a mountaintop she weepsand even now

Tears fall in nvulets from astatue's face.

故事早知，没有想到真有哭石。按《希腊的神话和传说》中的说法，尼俄柏石化后被风吹到吕底亚的西皮勒斯山上，就是我所在马尼萨的斯皮尔山。拍张照片，虽然实在也看不出什么名堂。

哭石