Muses

The Muses
Apollo and the Muses by John Singer Sargent (1921)
Goddesses of Inspiration and Creativity
General Information
Species	Goddess
Gender identity	Female
Powers & Abilities	Inspire mortals Pass on knowledge and/or skill Enhance craftsmanship
Abodes	Mount Parnassus, Mount Helicon
Relationships
Parents	Zeus and Mnemosyne
Equivalents
Roman equivalent	Camenae

In Greek mythology, the Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι) are the goddesses of inspiration, creativity, science, literature, and the arts. They give inspiration to mortals in fields such as literature, science, music, poetry, and more. There are three different generations of muses.

The number and names of the Muses differed by era and region, but from the Classical period the number of Muses was standardized to nine, and their names were generally given as Calliope, Clio, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, and Urania.

Etymology

The word Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, romanized: Moûsai) perhaps came from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- (the basic meaning of which is 'put in mind' in verb formations with transitive function and 'have in mind' in those with intransitive function), or from root *men- ('to tower, mountain') since all the most important cult-centers of the Muses were on mountains or hills. R. S. P. Beekes rejects the latter etymology and suggests that a Pre-Greek origin is also possible.

Number and Names

The earliest known records of the Muses come from Boeotia (Boeotian muses). Some ancient authorities regarded the Muses as of Thracian origin. In Thrace, a tradition of three original Muses persisted.

In the first century BC, Diodorus Siculus cited Homer and Hesiod to the contrary, observing:

Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that there are three, and others that there are nine, but the number nine has prevailed since it rests upon the authority of the most distinguished men, such as Homer and Hesiod and others like them.

Diodorus states (Book I.18) that Osiris first recruited the nine Muses, along with the satyrs, while passing through Aethiopia, before embarking on a tour of all Asia and Europe, teaching the arts of cultivation wherever he went.

According to Hesiod's account (c. 700 BC), generally followed by the writers of antiquity, the Nine Muses were the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (i.e., "Memory" personified), figuring as personifications of knowledge and the arts, especially poetry, literature, dance and music.

The Roman scholar Varro (116–27 BC) relates that there are only three Muses: one born from the movement of water, another who makes sound by striking the air, and a third who is embodied only in the human voice. They were called Melete or "Practice", Mneme or "Memory" and Aoide or "Song".^{[citation needed]} The Quaestiones Convivales of Plutarch (46–120 AD) also report three ancient Muses (9.I4.2–4).

However, the classical understanding of the Muses tripled their triad and established a set of nine goddesses, who embody the arts and inspire creation with their graces through remembered and improvised song and mime, writing, traditional music, and dance. It was not until Hellenistic times that the following systematic set of functions became associated with them, and even then some variation persisted both in their names and in their attributes:

• Calliope (epic poetry)
• Clio (history)
• Polyhymnia (hymn)
• Euterpe (flute)
• Terpsichore (light verse and dance)
• Erato (lyric choral poetry)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (astronomy, astrology, and space)

According to Pausanias, who wrote in the later second century AD, there were originally three Muses, worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Aoide ('song' or 'tune'), Melete ('practice' or 'occasion'), and Mneme ('memory'). Together, these three form the complete picture of the preconditions of poetic art in cult practice.

In Delphi too three Muses were worshipped, but with other names: Nete, Mese, and Hypate, which are assigned as the names of the three chords of the ancient musical instrument, the lyre.

Alternatively, later they were called Cephisso, Apollonis, and Borysthenis - names which characterize them as daughters of Apollo.

A later tradition recognized a set of four Muses: Thelxinoë, Aoide, Archē, and Melete, said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia or of Ouranos. One of the people frequently associated with the Muses was Pierus. By some he was called the father (by a Pimpleian nymph, called Antiope by Cicero) of a total of seven Muses, called Neilṓ (Νειλώ), Tritṓnē (Τριτώνη), Asōpṓ (Ἀσωπώ), Heptápora (Ἑπτάπορα), Achelōís, Tipoplṓ (Τιποπλώ), and Rhodía (Ῥοδία).

Mythology

Hesiod and the Muse by Gustave Moreau (1891).

Concurring to Hesiod's Theogony (seventh century BC), they were children of Zeus, ruler of the divine beings, and Mnemosyne, Titaness of memory. Hesiod in Theogony describes that the Muses brought to individuals distraction, that's , the distraction of torment and the cessation of commitments.

According to Alcman and Mimnermus, they were indeed more primordial, springing from the early divinities Ouranos and Gaia. Gaia is Mother Earth, an early mother goddess who was revered at Delphi from ancient times, long some time recently the location was rededicated to Apollo, conceivably showing a exchange to affiliation with him after that time.

In some cases the Muses are alluded to as water nymphs, related with the springs of Helicon and with Pieris. It was said that the winged horse Pegasus touched his hooves to the ground on Helicon, causing four sacrosanct springs to burst forward, from which the Muses, too known as pegasides, were born. Athena afterward subdued the horse and displayed him to the Muses (compare the Roman inspirational nymphs of springs, the Camenae, the Völva of Norse Mythology conjointly the apsaras within the mythology of classical India).

Classical scholars set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousēgetēs ('Apollo Muse-leader'). In one myth, the Muses judged a challenge between Apollo and Marsyas. They also assembled the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, child of Calliope, and buried them in Leivithra. In a afterward myth, Thamyris challenged them to a singing challenge. They won and rebuffed Thamyris by blinding him and victimizing him of his singing capacity.

Concurring to a myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses—alluding to the association of Pieria with the Muses—Pierus, lord of Macedon, had nine girls he named after the nine Muses, accepting that their abilities were a incredible coordinate to the Muses. He hence challenged the Muses to a coordinate, coming about in his girls, the Pierides, being turned into chattering jays (with κίσσα frequently incorrectly deciphered as 'magpies') for their assumption.

Pausanias records a convention of two eras of Muses; the first are the girls of Ouranos and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer family history is that they are children of Harmonia (the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares), which negates the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus.

Children

Calliope bore Ialemus and Orpheus with Apollo. However, some myths state that Oeagrus was the father of Orpheus, and Apollo took the boy under his wing. Apollo taught him how to play the lyre, and Calliope how to sing.

Some sources say that Linus was a child of Apollo and either Calliope, Terpsichore, or Urania. Strymon had a child with either Calliope and Euterpe. The boy was named Rhesus.

Achelous was the father of the Sirens by Melpomene or Terpsichore. Erato and Malos had a daughter named Kleopheme. A rare account suggest that Hyacinth was a child of Apollo and Clio.

Hymen is sometimes the child of Apollo and one of the Muses, either Calliope, Clio, Terpsichore, or Urania. Thalia and Apollo bore the Korybantes.

Against the Sirens

In the sanctuary of Hera in Coroneia was a statue created by Pythodorus of Thebes, depicting Hera holding the sirens. According to the myth, Hera persuaded the sirens to challenge the Muses to a singing contest. After the Muses won, they are said to have plucked the sirens' feathers and used them to make crowns for themselves. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, the sirens, overwhelmed by their loss, cast off their feathers from their shoulders, turned white and then threw themselves into the sea. As a result, the nearby city was named Aptera ("featherless") and the nearby islands were called the Leukai ("the white ones"). John Tzetzes recounts that after defeating the sirens, the Muses crowned themselves with the sirens' wings, except for Terpsichore who was their mother, adding that the city of Aptera named after this event. Furthermore, in one of his letters, Julian the Emperor mentions the Muses' victory over the sirens.

Generations of Muses

The Muses were originally all aspects of one goddess. (Muse with barbiton, Paestan red-figure lekanis ca 360-340 B.C.)

Mousai Titanides

The Titaness Muses. Daughters of Ouranós and Gaia . There are five Mousai Titanides, Melete, Aiode, Thelxinoe, Arkhe and Mnemosyne (mother of the Mousai Olympides ).

Mousai Olympides

The Muses (Mousai) of Olympus. They are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, personification of memory. Zeus and Mnemosyne met for 9 nights birthing the nine goddesses. These nine are Calliope (mother of the Mousai Apollonides), Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.

Mousai Apollonides

The Muses of Apollo . Daughters of Calliope and Apollo. There are six Mousai Apollonides, Cephiso, Apollonis, Borysthenis, Nete, Mese and Hypate.

Gallery

Relief slab, depicting three Muses. About 330-320 B.C.

Hellenist mosaics uncovered in the year 2000 in Zeugma, Turkey by Ankara University. This mosaic depicts the nine muses.

The Dance of the Muses at Mount Helicon by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1807)

Apollo and the Muses from Roman Antiquities, And Ancient Mythology for Classical Schools written by Charles K. Dillaway and published in 1833. No illustrator was identified.

Videos

Miscellaneous Myths- The Muses