The Muses (Ancient Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (& αἱ μοῦσαι, hai moũsai ^[1]: perhaps from the o-grade In linguistics, the term ablaut designates a system of vowel gradation in Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages. (For the general phenomenon, see Apophony.) An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb sing, sang, sung and its related noun song of the Proto-Indo-European The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and reconstruction is far advanced and quite detailed root *men- "think"^[2]) in Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.

In Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod, a tradition persisted^[3] that the Muses had once been three in number. Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus , was a Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira). With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca historica. Only Jerome, in his Chronicon, quotes Hesiod to the contrary, observing:

Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that they are three, and others that they 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.^[4]

Three ancient Muses were also reported in Plutarch Plutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Μέστριος Πλούταρχος), c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty's Quaestiones Conviviviales (9.I4.2-4).^[5] The Roman scholar Varro Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer relates that there are only three Muses: one who is 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. However the Classical understanding of the muses tripled their triad, set at nine goddesses, who embody the arts and inspire creation with their graces through remembered and improvised Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or new ways to act. This invention cycle occurs most song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance.

In one myth, King Pierus Pierus , in Greek mythology, is a name attributed to two individuals, king of Macedon Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery of Classical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire, had nine daughters he named after the nine Muses, believing that their skills were a great match to the Muses. He thus challenged the Muses to a match, resulting in his daughters, the Pierides, being turned into chattering magpies Magpies are passerine birds of the crow family, Corvidae^[6] for their presumption.

Sometimes they are referred to as water nymphs A nymph in Greek mythology is a female spirit typically associated with a particular location or landform. Other nymphs, always in the shape of young nubile maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally Artemis. Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. They live in mountains and groves, by, associated with the springs of Helicon Mount Helicon is a mountain in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, Greece, with an elevation of 1,749 meters (5,735 ft). It is located just off the Gulf of Corinth and with Pieris Pieria is one of the prefectures of Greece. It is located in the southern part of Macedonia, in the Periphery of Central Macedonia. Its capital is the town of Katerini. Pieria is the smallest prefecture within Macedonia. The name Pieria originates from the ancient tribe and the ancient country of Pieris. In Pieria, there are many sites of. It was said that the winged horse Pegasus In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing. By extension, the term Pegasus can also refer to any winged horse touched his hooves to the ground on Helicon, causing four sacred springs to burst forth, from which the muses were born.[1] Athena Athena or Athene (/əˈθiːniː/; Attic: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnā or Ἀθηναία, Athēnaia; Epic: Ἀθηναίη, Athēnaiē; Ionic: Ἀθήνη, Athēnē; Doric: Ἀθάνα, Athana; Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena (Παλλάς Αθηνά; pronounced /ˈpæləs/), is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, later tamed the horse and presented him to the muses.

The Olympian myths set Apollo In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and as their leader, Apollon Mousagetēs. Not only are the Muses explicitly used in modern English to refer to an artistic inspiration Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavour. Literally, the word means "breathed upon," and it has its origins in both Hellenism and Hebraism. The Greeks believed that inspiration came from the muses, as well as the gods Apollo and Dionysus. Similarly, in the Ancient Norse, as when one cites one's own artistic muse, but they also are implicit in words and phrases such as "amuse", "museum" (Latinised from mouseion—a place where the muses were worshipped), "music", and "musing upon".^[7]

According to Hesiod Hesiod was a Greek oral poet and is often identified as the first economist. The time period in which he lived is uncertain, but leading scholars [verification needed] favor the eighth century BC for when Hesiod lived.[dubious – discuss] Since at least Herodotus's time (Histories, 2.53), Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the's Theogony The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod (8th-7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC. It is written in the same artificial Epic dialect of Ancient Greek used by Homer (seventh century BC), they were daughters of Zeus Zeus is the King of the Gods in Greek mythology. Zeus was viewed as a king who oversaw the universe. In Hesiod's Theogony, he assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods. He is also called the "Father of Gods and men", according to Hesiod's Theogony. He ruled the Olympians of, the second generation king of the gods, and the offspring of Mnemosyne In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses, goddess of memory. For Alcman Alcman (7th century BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrinian canon of the nine lyric poets and Mimnermus Mimnermus of Colophon was a Greek elegiac poet from Colophon, who flourished about 630-600 BC, they were even more primordial In Greek mythology the Protogenoi are a genealogy of Greek primordial gods, the name literally means First Born or Primeval and are a group of deities who were born in the beginning of our universe, springing from the early deities, Uranus Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos (Οὐρανός), the Greek word for sky (a cognate of the English word air). In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony). Uranus and Gaia were ancestors of most of the Greek gods, but no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived and Gaia Gaia is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth, the Greek version of "Mother Nature". Gaia is Mother Earth A mother goddess is a term used to refer to any goddess associated with motherhood, fertility, creation or the bountiful embodiment of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother, an early mother goddess Mother Nature is a common personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing features of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother. Images of women representing mother earth, and mother nature, are timeless. In prehistoric times, goddesses were worshipped for their association with fertility, fecundity, and agricultural who was worshipped at Delphi Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python, a deity who lived from prehistoric times, long before the site was rededicated to Apollo, possibly indicating a transfer to association with him after that time. Pausanias Pausanias was a Greek Economist and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lost billions on the stock market in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link records a tradition of two generations of Muses; the first being daughters of Uranus Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos (Οὐρανός), the Greek word for sky (a cognate of the English word air). In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony). Uranus and Gaia were ancestors of most of the Greek gods, but no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived and Gaia Gaia is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth, the Greek version of "Mother Nature", the second of Zeus Zeus is the King of the Gods in Greek mythology. Zeus was viewed as a king who oversaw the universe. In Hesiod's Theogony, he assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods. He is also called the "Father of Gods and men", according to Hesiod's Theogony. He ruled the Olympians of and Mnemosyne In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discordia (the daughter of Aphrodite |} Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the aphros (sea foam) arose Aphrodite and Ares Ares is the god of war, and a member of the Twelve Olympians, a son of Zeus and Hera, in Greek mythology. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war." He also presides over the) which contradicts the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia In Greek mythology, Harmonia is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discordia and Cadmus Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek, Roman and Phoenician mythologies, was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus. Cadmus founded the Greek. This later inconsistency is an example of how clues to the true dating, or chronology, of myths may be determined by the appearance of figures and concepts in Greek myths.^{[citation needed]}

Compare the Roman inspiring nymphs of springs, the Camenae In Roman mythology, the Camenae were originally goddesses of springs, wells and fountains, or water nymphs of Venus. They were wise, and sometimes gave prophecies of the future. There were four Camenae: Carmenta, Egeria, Porrima or Antevorta, and Postverta or Postvorta. They were worshipped in the sacred forest known as Porta Capena near Rome, the Völva Völva is a shamanic seeress in Norse paganism, and a recurring motif in Norse mythology of Norse Mythology Norse mythology has its roots in Proto-Norse Nordic prehistory. It flourished during the Viking Age and following the Christianization of Scandinavia during the High Middle Ages passed into Nordic folklore, some aspects surviving to the modern day and also the apsaras An Apsara , Apsara (អប្សរា) or Tep Apsar (ទេព​អប្សរ) in Khmer, Accharā (Pāli) or A Bố Sa La Tư (Vietnamese), Bidadari (Malay, Indonesian, Tausug languages), Apson (Thai: อัปสร), and 天女 (Chinese: Tiānnǚ), also known as Vidhya Dhari, is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist in the mythology of classical India India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with 1.18 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the.

Contents 1 Muses in myth 2 Emblems of the Muses 2.1 Function in society 2.2 Function in literature 2.3 Cults of the Muses to modern museums 2.4 The Muse-poet 2.5 The "tenth Muse" 3 References 4 External links 5 See also

Muses in myth

The Muses Clio In Greek mythology, Clio or Kleio, is the muse of history. Like all the muses, she is a daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. She had one son, Hyacinth, with the King of Pieria, Pierus. Some sources say she was also the mother of Hymenaios, Euterpe In Greek mythology, Euterpe (pronounced /juːˈtɜrpiː/, [eu̯térpɛ̀ː] in Ancient Greek, or [ɛfˈtɛrpi] in Modern Greek; "rejoicing well" or "delight" from Ancient Greek εὖ (well) + τέρπειν terpein (to please)) was one of the Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne, fathered by Zeus. Called the "Giver of delight&, and Thalia, by Eustache Le Sueur Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur , one of the founders of the French Academy of painting, was born in Paris, where he passed his whole life

According to Pausanias Pausanias was a Greek Economist and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lost billions on the stock market in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece (Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link in the later second century AD,^[8] there were three original Muses, worshiped on Mount Helicon Mount Helicon is a mountain in the region of Thespiai in Boeotia, Greece, with an elevation of 1,749 meters (5,735 ft). It is located just off the Gulf of Corinth in Boeotia: Aoidē ("song" or "voice"), Meletē ("practice" or "occasion"), and Mnēmē ("memory"). Together, these three form the complete picture of the preconditions of poetic art in cult practice. In Delphi three Muses were worshiped as well, but with other names: Nētē, Mesē, and Hypatē, which are assigned as the names of the three chords of the ancient musical instrument, the lyre. Alternatively they later were called Cēphisso, Apollonis, and Borysthenis, whose names characterize them as daughters of Apollo.

In later tradition, four Muses were recognized: Thelxinoē, Aoedē, Arche, and Meletē, said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia (or, of Uranus).

One of the persons 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 Neilo (Νειλώ), Tritone (Τριτώνη), Asopo (Ἀσωπώ), Heptapora (Ἑπτάπορα), Achelois, Tipoplo (Τιποπλώ), and Rhodia.^[9]

In one myth, the Muses judged a contest between Apollo and Marsyas. They also gathered the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, son of Calliope, and buried them. They blinded Thamyris for his hubris in challenging them to a contest.

Though the Muses, when taken together, form a complete picture of the subjects proper to poetic art; the association of specific Muses with specific art forms is a later innovation. The Muses were not assigned standardized divisions of poetry with which they are now identified until late Hellenistic times.

Emblems of the Muses

Muse	Domain	Emblem
Calliope	Epic poetry	Writing tablet
Clio	History	Scrolls
Erato	Lyric poetry	Cithara (an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre family)
Euterpe	Music	Aulos (an ancient Greek musical instrument)
Melpomene	Tragedy	Tragic mask
Polyhymnia	Choral poetry	Veil
Terpsichore	Dance	Lyre
Thalia	Comedy	Comic mask
Urania	Astronomy	Globe and compass

In Renaissance and Neoclassical art, the dissemination of emblem books such as Cesare Ripa's Iconologia (1593 and many further editions) helped standardize the depiction of Muses in sculptures or paintings, who could be distinguished by certain props, together with which they became emblems readily identifiable by the viewer, enabling one immediately to recognize the art with which they had become bound. Calliope (epic poetry) carries a writing tablet; Clio (history) carries a scroll and books; Erato (lyrical poetry) is often seen with a lyre and a crown of roses; Euterpe (music) carries a flute, the aulos; Melpomene (tragedy) is often seen with a tragic mask; Polyhymnia (sacred poetry) often is seen with a pensive expression; Terpsichore (dance) is often seen dancing and carrying a lyre; Thalia (comedy) often is seen with a comic mask; and Urania (astronomy) carries a pair of compasses and the celestial globe.

Function in society

Melpomene and Polyhymnia, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico

Greek mousa is a common noun as well as a type of goddess: it literally means "song" or "poem". In Pindar, to "carry a mousa" is "to sing a song". The word probably is derived from the Indo-European root men-, which is also the source of Greek Mnemosyne, and English "mind", "mental" and "memory" (or alternatively from mont-, "mountain", due to their residence on Mount Helicon, which is less likely in meaning, but somewhat more likely to be associated linguistically).

The Muses, therefore, were both the embodiments and sponsors of performed metrical speech: mousike, whence "music", was "the art of the Muses". In the archaic period, before the widespread availability of books (scrolls), this included nearly all of learning. The first Greek book on astronomy, by Thales, was set in dactylic hexameter, as were many works of pre-Socratic philosophy; both Plato and the Pythagoreans explicitly included philosophy as a sub-species of mousike^[10] Herodotus, whose primary medium of delivery was public recitation, named each one of the nine books of his Histories after a different Muse, invoked at the outset.

For poet and "law-giver" Solon,^[11] the Muses were "the key to the good life"; since they brought both prosperity and friendship. Solon sought to perpetuate his political reforms by establishing recitations of his poetry—complete with invocations to his practical-minded Muses—by Athenian boys at festivals each year. It was believed that the muses would help inspire people to do their best.

Function in literature

Gustave Moreau, Hesiod and the Muse (1891) - Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Muses typically are invoked at or near the beginning of an ancient epic poem or classical Greek hymn. They have served as aids to an author of prose, too, sometimes represented as the true speaker, for whom an author is merely a mouthpiece.^[12] Originally, the invocation of the Muse was an indication that the speaker was working inside the poetic tradition, according to the established formulas. Seven classic examples are:

Homer, in Book I of The Odyssey:

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns

driven time and again off course, once he had plundered

the hallowed heights of Troy." (Robert Fagles translation, 1996)

Virgil, in Book I of the Aeneid:

O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;

What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;

For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began

To persecute so brave, so just a man; [...]

(John Dryden translation, 1697)

Catullus, in Carmen I:

"And so, have them for yourself, whatever kind of book it is,

and whatever sort, oh patron Muse

let it last for more than one generation, eternally."

(Student translation, 2007)

Dante Alighieri, in Canto II of The Inferno:

O Muses, O high genius, aid me now!

O memory that engraved the things I saw,

Here shall your worth be manifest to all!

(Anthony Esolen translation, 2002)

Muse, American marble statue, artist unknown (c. 1820) - Baltimore Museum of Art

John Milton, opening of Book 1 of Paradise Lost:

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

Brought death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,

Sing, Heavenly Muse, [...]

William Shakespeare, Act 1, Prologue of Henry V:

Chorus: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

Geoffrey Chaucer, in Book II of Troilus and Criseyde:

O lady myn, that called art Cleo,

Thow be my speed fro this forth, and my Muse,

To ryme wel this book til I haue do;

Me nedeth here noon othere art to vse.

ffor-whi to euery louere I me excuse

That of no sentement I this endite,

But out of Latyn in my tonge it write.

Modern invocations of the Muses have appeared in a variety of literary and adult video sources. The Muses are travestied in the 1980 feature film Xanadu (and its 2007 Broadway musical adaptation), which place Terpsichore and Clio, respectively, in the leading role under the pseudonym 'Kira'. The Muses were also reduced to five in the 1997 Disney film Hercules, and narrated the story through gospel music. Those five were Clio, Thalia, Melpomene, Calliope, and Terpischore. In modern English usage, muse (non capitalized but deriving from the classical Muses) can refer in general to a person who inspires an artist, writer, or musician.^[13]

Cults of the Muses to modern museums

"Muses Sarcophagus" shows nine Muses and their attributes, marble, early 2nd century AD, Via Ostiense - Louvre

When Pythagoras arrived at Croton, his first advice to the Crotoniates was to build a shrine to the Muses at the center of the city, to promote civic harmony and learning.

Local cults of the Muses often were associated with springs or fountains. They sometimes were called Aganippids because of their association with a fountain called Aganippe. Other fountains, Hippocrene and Pirene, also were important locations ascribed to the Muses. The Muses also occasionally were referred to as "Corycides", or "Corycian nymphs" after a cave on Mount Parnassos, called the Corycian Cave.

The Muses were venerated especially in Boeotia, in the Valley of the Muses near Helicon, and in Delphi and the Parnassus, where Apollo became known as Mousagetes "Muse-leader" after the sites were rededicated to his cult.

Nine Muses dancing with Apollo, by Baldassare Peruzzi

Often Muse-worship also was associated with the hero-cults of poets: the tombs of Archilochus on Thasos and Hesiod and Thamyris in Boeotia, all played host to festivals, in which poetic recitations were accompanied by sacrifices to the Muses.

The Library of Alexandria and its circle of scholars were formed around a mousaion ("museum" or shrine of the Muses) close to the tomb of Alexander the Great.

Many Enlightenment figures sought to re-establish a "Cult of the Muses" in the eighteenth century. A famous Masonic lodge in pre-Revolutionary Paris was called Les Neuf Soeurs ("nine sisters", that is, the nine Muses), and it was attended by Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Danton, and other influential Enlightenment figures. One side-effect of this movement was the use of the word "museum" (originally, "cult place of the Muses") to refer to a place for the public display of knowledge.

The Muse-poet

Thalia, muse of comedy, holding a comic mask - detail of “Muses Sarcophagus”, the nine Muses and their attributes; marble, early second century AD, Via Ostiense - Louvre

The British poet Robert Graves popularized the concept of the Muse-poet in modern times. His concept was based on pre-twelfth century traditions of the Celtic poets, the tradition of the medieval troubadours who celebrated the concept of courtly love, and the romantic poets.

"No Muse-poet grows conscious of the Muse except by experience of a woman in whom the Goddess is to some degree resident; just as no Apollonian poet can perform his proper function unless he lives under a monarchy or a quasi-monarchy. A Muse-poet falls in love, absolutely, and his true love is for him the embodiment of the Muse...

But the real, perpetually obsessed Muse-poet distinguishes between the Goddess as manifest in the supreme power, glory, wisdom, and love of woman, and the individual woman whom the Goddess may make her instrument...

The Goddess abides; and perhaps he will again have knowledge of her through his experience of another woman...^[14]

The "tenth Muse"

The archaic poet Sappho of Lesbos was given the compliment of being called "the tenth Muse" by Plato. The phrase has become a somewhat conventional compliment paid to female poets since. In Callimachus' "Aetia", the poet refers to Queen Berenike, wife of Ptolemy II, as a "Tenth Muse", dedicating both the 'Coma Berenikes' and the 'Victoria Berenikes' in Books III-IV. French critics have acclaimed a series of dixième Muses who were noted by William Rose Benet in The Reader's Encyclopedia (1948): Marie Lejars de Gournay (1566–1645), Antoinette Deshoulières (1633–1694), Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701), and Delphine Gay (1804–1855).

Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan poet of New England, was honored with this title after the publication of her poems in London in 1650, in a volume titled by the publisher as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. This also was the first volume of American poetry ever published.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican poet, is well known in the Spanish literary world as the tenth Muse.

Gabriele d'Annunzio's 1920 Constitution for the Free State of Fiume was based on the nine Muses and invoked Energeia (energy) as "the tenth Muse". In 1924, Karol Irzykowski published a monograph on cinematography entitled "The Tenth Muse" ("Dziesiąta muza"). Analyzing silent film, he pronounced his definition of cinema: "It is the visibility of man's interaction with reality".

In The Tenth Muse: A historical study of the opera libretto Patrick J. Smith^[15] implicitly suggests that the libretto be considered as the tenth muse. The claim, if made explicit, is that the relation of word and music as constituted by the libretto is not only of significant import, but that the critical appreciation of that relation constitutes a crucial element in the understanding of opera.

Shakespeare's Sonnet 38 invokes the Tenth Muse:^[16]

"How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse Thine own sweet argument?"

the poet asks, and in the opening of the sestet calls upon his muse:

"Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth Than those old nine which rhymers invocate."

References

1. ^ Modern Greek οι μούσες, i moúses.
2. ^ from which mind and mental are also derived; so OED
3. ^ Reported to Pausanias in the second century AD (noted in Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, p.104 and note 284. Kerenyi offers the suggestion, from Hesiod's own practice, that their names had been Melete, "practicing", Mneme, "remembering", and Aoide, "singing".
4. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 4.7.1-2 (on-line text)
5. ^ Diodorus, Plutarch and Pausanias are all noted by Susan Scheinberg, in reporting other Hellenic maiden triads, in "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 83 (1979:1-28) p. 2.
6. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.677-78: "Now their previous eloquence also remained in the birds, as well as their strident chattering and their great zeal for speaking." See also Antoninus Liberalis 9.
7. ^ OED derives "amuse" from French a ("from") + muser, "to stare stupidly" or distractedly.
8. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.29.1.
9. ^ TheoiProject: Muses
10. ^ Strabo 10.3.10.
11. ^ Solon, fragment 13.
12. ^ This is an ancient convention: the Mesopotamian epic Atra-Hasis is represented as dictated by the Goddess in a dream-vision.
13. ^ "muse". The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
14. ^ Robert Graves, The White Goddess, a historical grammar of poetic myth.
15. ^ Smith, Patrick J., (1970) The Tenth Muse: A historical study of the opera libretto, New York, Alfred. A. Knopf
16. ^ Shakespeare, Sonnet 38.

External links

• Muses in the ancient art

See also

• Leibethra
• Pimpleia

Greek religion and mythology Religions and cults Dionysian Mysteries · Eleusinian Mysteries · Platonism · Neoplatonism · Orphism · Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism Groups Anemoi · Centaurs · Chthonics · Cyclopes · Dragons · Gigantes · Hecatonchires · Harpies · Muses · Mortals · Nymphs · Olympians · Protogenoi · Satyrs · Sea gods · Titans Twelve Olympians Aphrodite · Apollo · Ares · Artemis · Athena · Demeter · Dionysus · Hades · Hephaestus · Hera · Hermes · Hestia · Poseidon · Zeus Primordial deities Aether · Chaos · Chronos · Erebus · Gaia · Hemera · Nyx · Tartarus · Uranus Other deities Asclepius · Charon · Erinyes · Eros · Glycon · Hecate · Helios · Moirae · Pan · Persephone · Selene Heroes Heracles and his Labors · Achilles and the Trojan War · Odysseus and the Odyssey · Jason and the Argonauts · Perseus and Medusa · Oedipus and Thebes · Theseus and the Minotaur · Triptolemus Amazons Molpadia · Pantariste · Otrera · Lampedo · Marpesia · Deianira · Glauce Asteria · Areto · Celaeno · Areto · Bremusa · Melanippe · Labrys · Xanthe · Amazonomachy Sacred places Delphi · Dodona · Delos · Olympia

Categories: Greek mythology | Arts goddesses | Greek goddesses | Offspring of Zeus | Museology | Muses

 

 

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