And when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus”. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals. “ Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the hills of Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. Hesiod also states that the Muses were created as an aid to forgetfulness and relief from troubles, perhaps as a balance to their mother, who personified memory. Her symbols were the globe and the compass. She was the Muse of astronomy and astrology. She presided over comedy and pastoral poetry. She was the Muse of dancing and choral singing. She was the Muse of Sacred Hymn, and of Eloquence. She was the Muse of lyric poetry and music. Her symbol was cithara, a Greek type of lyreĮuterpe. She was the Muse of lyric poetry about love and eroticism. She was the patron of history, and inventor of historical and heroic poetry. Calliope was the mother of Orpheus by the King of Thrace. The myth tells that she introduced the Phoenician alphabet to Greece), Erato (love poetry – symbol: cithara, a Greek type of lyre), Euterpe (lyric poetry – symbol: aulos, a Greek flute), Melpomene (tragedy – symbol: tragic mask), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry – symbol: veil), Terpsichore (dance – symbol: lyre), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry – symbol: comic mask), and Urania (astronomy – symbols: globe and compass).Īll the Hesiodic names are significant thus Calliope means “She of the Beautiful Voice”, Clio the “Proclaimer”, Erato the “Lovely”, Euterpe the “Well Pleasing”, Melpomene the “Songstress”, Polymnia “She of the Many Hymns”, Thalia the “Blooming”, Terpsichore “Delighting in the Dance”, and Urania the “Heavenly”.Ĭalliope. There were nine Muses according to Hesiod, protecting a different art and being symbolised with a different element Calliope (epic poetry – symbol: writing tablet), Clio (history – symbol: scroll. Ever since, the Muses supported and encouraged creation, enhancing imagination and inspiration of the artists. When they grew up they showed their tendency to the arts, taught by God Apollo himself.Īpollo brought them to the big and beautiful Mount Elikonas, where the older Temple of Zeus used to be. Μnemosyne gave the babies to Nymph Eufime and Apollo (God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry and Fine Arts). Zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights, thus birthing the nine Muses. It was only later, with Hesiod that the idea of Nine Muses showed up.Īccording to it, they were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The Muses were the Greek goddesses of inspiration in literature, science and the arts.īefore the Classical idea of the nine Muses, Pausanias tells us of three Muses, different altogether from the nine we know.
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