The Muses Dancing with Apollo - Baldassarre Peruzzi - PD-art-100
Where do they come from?
"For nine nights Zeus did lay
With Mnemosyne in secrecy
From this union nine they say
Beautiful, lovely the Muses be"
by Phyllis Doyle Burns
Sarcophagus of the Muses (White marble. Rome, 180—200 CE.)
Vienna, Museum of Art History
credit: © 2012. Photo: Ilya Shurygin.
Unique talents
Each one of the muses has her own domain and attributes. Here is a list in alphabetical order
CALIOPE - Caliope was often portrayed as the most important and the most beautiful one. Her domain is epic poetry and she is often seen holding a writing tablet.
CLIO - Clio is there for history lovers, but not only for knowledge. Her domain is glorifying history and she is seen holding a scroll.
ERATO - Erato is the muse of love and lyric poetry and is seen holding a cithara.
EUTERPE - Euterpe represents elegiac poetry and is the muse os singing. She is seen with a flute type instrument called aulos.
MELPOMENE - Melpomene is the muse of tragedy and is portraited holding a tragedy mask in her hand or sometimes over her face.
POLYHYMNIA - This muse area are hymns. For inspiration when you want to write a hymn or an ode to some hero or a god, you want to be on her good side. She is seen with a veil.
TERPSICHORE - This is the muse of dance whose symbol is the lyre.
THALIA - Thalia is here for all of you who enjoy a good laugh, she is the muse of comedy and is represented by a comedy mask.
URANIA - This muse is the favourite one for all scholars and scientists. She is the muse of astronomy and is often seen holding a globe and a compass.
Lionel Noel Royer: The Muses Garden, detail.
When do we need them?
“Happy is the man who the muses love, sweet speech flows from his mouth” – Hesiod
which is roughly translated:
"Milk your muse until she runs away."
There is some truth in his words for muses are tricky and they will run and hide often. Good luck with your art and good luck with your muse findings!
For additional information on muses please follow these links:
The Eternal Muse
Muses: Nine Goddesses From Greek Mythology
Ancient history encyclopedia - Muse
The Younger Muses
Perfect timing for me. My novel is stalled. So I write posts here to keep my pen flowing, but it is the novel that needs to be written. I have some soul searching to do to find the right muse.
Then this is the post for you :) Good luck with finding your muse and good luck with your novel! 💚
Thank you @zen-art I've enjoyed reading this. I knew about the muses, but forgot about them, so thank you for reminding. Knows from experience that muses do indeed hide a lot...lol ...keep running after them doesn't always work. But hey....they always seem to come back after some time :)
Thank you for sharing this lovely story
I am happy that I reminded you of them, they are fun to read and learn about. They are tricky to catch and they do run away often, but as you said, they come back ;)
Very interesting.. Ill try and have Thalia inspire me for the day. 😁
I could use some help in that area. Hehe
Thalia is nice, good luck with her. When you get her, hold on and don't let go :)
I think you go to jail for that. 😁
See, shes already helping. Hahaha
Before reading your post, my first thought was I wonder why we don't have muses today. I quickly realized we do, we just don't call them muses anymore. Thanks, very interesting post.
In my native language (Croatian) we do use the word "muza" for a person who inspires our art but not a lot of people know where does the word come from. I do hope this post will provide that knowledge ;)
Erato and Urania <3 Oh yes... :D
I knew you would like Urania 💚
what a lovely post about muse. Never thought of them as having names and roles. Nice work. @zen-art
Oh yeah, they have their names and roles and were even painted and sculpted by various artists through history. Thanks for stopping by shadows 💚
100% -because I'm Greek [and clearly very objective hahaha] Seriously now I love our history and/or mythology, and that's a very cool summary about the Muses! ;)
Oh... Phew... Now I am relieved, if a Greek person says it's ok, than it is ok :)
Thank you honey 💚
Great work on this one zen! Well, I find my ''muse'' in nature, one place particular where i like to go so that can't escape from me :) anyway, can a place be ''a muse''?
You can find inspiration anywhere, especially in nature but muses were/are in human form :)
I think that Erato and Thalia are mine frequent visitors. I like to write lyrics ( from time to time) and comedy should be an essential part of the life.
It is always fun when they come in a pair 💚
Wow this is lovely! I actually never knew. I suppose they would all love Dionysus as well, since he is the drunken god of theatre. I feel like I should envoke a muse more often in my life, maybe then I could write proper poetry? haha, thank you for sharing!
Well, good look with your evoking and your poetry 💚
for me it is company of creative people. no need to be in your "department". i draw inspiration from witnessing other people createing.
Where attention goes, energy flows. We often get our creative juices going by seeing other people being inspired and creative.
Wish they can start a band name by the same name before - "The Muse"...hehe
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No artist who is a true artist produces without the Muses. The Muses are the offspring of God and Memory--and whatever your god is, if you are an artist, it is that and what you place in your mind which are the sources of your art.
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