The Muses, daughters of Zeus (Il. 2.491, Od. 1.10) by Memory (Mnemosyne), dwelt on Olympus, where they sang and entertained the gods (Il. 2.484), or on the Mt. Helicon, where they were worshipped. They were nine in number (Od. 24.60) and were considered godesses of arts: Calliope was the Muse of epic song, Clio of history, Polymnia of mimical art, Euterpe of lyric song, Terpsichore of choric poetry, Thalia of comedy and Urania of astronomy (Hesiod, Theogony 25).
In Greek mythology the Muses were originally the nymphs of springs,
whose waters gave inspiration, such as Hippocrene, Castalia, etc.; then goddesses
of song in general; and afterwards the representatives of the various kinds of
poetry, arts, and sciences. In Homer, who now speaks of one, and now of many Muses,
but without specifying their number or their names, they are considered goddesses
dwelling in Olympus, who at the meals of the gods sing sweetly to the lyre of
Apollo, inspire the poet and prompt his song. Hesiod calls them the nine daughters
of Zeus and Mnemosyne, born in Pieria, and mentions their names, to which we shall
at the same time add the province and the attributes afterwards assigned to each.
(1) Calliope (she of the fair voice), in Hesiod the noblest of all, the Muse of
epic song; among her attributes are a wax tablet and a pencil.
(2) Clio (she that extols), the Muse of history; with a scroll.
(3) Euterpe (she that gladdens), the Muse of lyric song; with the double flute.
(4) Thalia (she that flourishes), the Muse of comedy and bucolic poetry; with
the comic mask, the ivy wreath, and the shepherd's staff.
(5) Melpomene (she that sings), the Muse of tragedy; with tragic mask, ivy wreath,
and occasionally with attributes of individual heroes-- e. g. the club, the sword.
(6) Terpsichore (she that rejoices in the dance), the Muse of dancing; with the
lyre.
(7) Erato (the lovely one), the Muse of erotic poetry; with a smaller lyre.
(8) Polymnia or Polyhymnia (she that is rich in hymns), the Muse of serious sacred
songs; usually represented as veiled and pensive.
(9) Urania (the heavenly), the Muse of astronomy; with the celestial globe. See
the separate articles on the Muses.
Three older Muses were sometimes distinguished from these.
Melete (Meditation), Mneme (Remembrance), Aoide (Song), whose worship was said
to have been introduced by the Aloadae, Otus and Ephialtes, near Mount Helicon.
Thracian settlers in the Pierian district at the foot of Olympus and of Helicon
in Boeotia are usually mentioned as the original founders of this worship. At
both these places were their oldest sanctuaries. According to the general belief,
the favourite haunts of the Muses were certain springs, near which temples and
statues had been erected in their honour: Castalia, at the foot of Mount Parnassus,
and Aganippe and Hippocrene, on Helicon, near the towns of Ascra and Thespiae.
After the decline of Ascra, the inhabitants of Thespiae attended to the worship
of the Muses and to the arrangements for the musical contests in their honour
that took place once in five years. They were also adored in many other places
in Greece. Thus the Athenians offered them sacrifices in the schools, while the
Spartans did so before battle. As the inspiring nymphs of springs they were early
connected with Dionysus; the god of poets, Apollo, is looked on as their leader
(Mousagetes), with whom they share the knowledge of past, present, and future.
As beings that gladden men and gods with their song, Hesiod describes them as
dwelling on Olympus along with the Charites and Himeros. They were represented
in art as virgin goddesses with long garments of many folds, and frequently with
a cloak besides; they were not distinguished by special attributes till comparatively
later times.
The Roman poets identified them with the Italian Camenae, prophetic
nymphs of springs and goddesses of birth, who had a grove at Rome outside the
Porta Capena. (See Egeria.) The Greeks gave the title of Muses to their nine most
distinguished poetesses: Praxilla, Moero , Anyte, Erinna, Telesilla, Corinna,
Nossis, Myrtis, and Sappho.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Muse : Perseus Project
The mother of Muses
One of the nine Muses, Calliope was the Muse of epic poetry, and was
pictured with a tablet and stylus, or with a scroll.
She had many children by different gods: Carybantes by Zeus, Hymen,
Ialemus and Linus by Apollo, Rhesus by the river Strymon, the Sirens, Orpheus
and Oeagrus. All of these children, except Rhesus, had to do with music or poetry.
Calliope had a special weakness for Achilles, and taught him how to
entertain and enhance the morals of his friends by singing at their feasts.
When Aphrodite and Persephone argued who would get Adonis, Calliope
was called in by Zeus as mediator. Her decision was that each goddess would be
with him a certain part of the year.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Muses, Muse: Perseus Project
Daughter of Termesus river.
Aganippe. A nymph of the well of the same name at the foot of Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, which was considered sacred to the Muses, and believed to have the power of inspiring those who drank of it. The nymph is called a daughter of the river-god Permessus. (Paus. ix. 29.3; Virg. Eclog. x. 12.) The Muses are sometimes called Aganippides.
Agamippis, is used by Ovid (Fast. v. 7) as an epithet of Hippocrene; its meaning however is not quite clear. It is derived from Agnippe, the well or nymph, and as Aganippides is used to designate the Muses, Aganippis Hippocrene may mean nothing but " Hippocrene, sacred to the Muses."
Daugther of Orion
Menippe. A daughter of Orion , who offered to die with her sister
Metioche, when a pestilence was raging in Boeotia, and the oracle demanded the
sacrifice of two virgins. They were changed into comets by Pluto and Persephone,
and had a sanctuary near Orchomenus.
Daughter of Orion.
Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses, of whom there was a statue in the grove of the Muses near Helicon. (Paus. ix. 29.3)
The first to sacrifice on Helicon to the Muses and to call the mountain sacred to the Muses were, they say, Ephialtes and Otus, who also founded Ascra .
On Helicon tripods have been dedicated, of which the oldest is the one which it is said Hesiod received for winning the prize for song at Chalcis on the Euripus. Men too live round about the grove, and here the Thespians celebrate a festival, and also games called the Museia. They celebrate other games in honor of Love, offering prizes not only for music but also for athletic events.
With many statues made by the best artists of the ancient times (Paus. 9,29,5 - 9,30,3 & 3,31,1-3).
They say that the earth sent up the water when the horse Pegasus struck the ground with his hoof (Paus. 2,31,9)
Hippocrene, (Hippokrene or Hippoukrene, "the fountain of the
steed"). The fount of the Muses, which was struck out of Mount Helicon, in
Boeotia, by the hoof of the winged steed Pegasus.
Aganippe. A spring on Mount Helicon, near Thespiae in Boeotia, sacred to the Muses, who were called from it Aganippides. Its water was believed to impart poetic inspiration.
River of Mt. Helicon, father of the Nymphe and spring Aganippe.
Situated in the upper valley of the Permessos (Archontitza) between Mt. Zagara and Mt. Marandali (Helikon) to the S and Mt. Koursara and Mt. Pyrgaki (Ascra) to the N, 8 km W of Thespiai. Formerly wooded, the valley was the alsos or Sacred Grove of the Muses; the sanctuary has been located around the Haghia Trias Chapel on the right bank of the Permessos. Underneath the walls of the Chapel of Haghia Trias, which stands on a terrace 50 m from the Permessos, was found the base of the Great Altar of the Muses (until 1954 mistakenly called "Temple of the Muses"). It faces E, is 5.80 m long and 9.80 m wide, and stands on two courses of white poros and one leveling course of conglomerate. The platform, built of well-bonded limestone blocks, was approached up a step on the W side; the altar covered two-thirds of its surface to the E. Forty m W of the altar the remains of a long N-S portico was discovered; it was open to the E and measured 96 x 10 m. The E colonnade (36 monolithic columns) was Ionic, the side colonnade, which supported the roof, Corinthian. Architectural fragments of this portico, of stone and terracotta, are in the Thebes Museum. N of the altar, on the left bank of the Permessos, a second portico was identified at least 48 m long. All these monuments date from the 3d c. B.C. at the earliest. Some 300 m SW of the great portico on the foothill of the mountain is a natural semicircular depression that marks the site of the theater. There were no stone tiers, but the seats in the proedria row were no doubt of marble. The skene, which was more than 7 m deep and erected on an artificial terrace, has collapsed; the proskenion, which was about 22 m wide and 3 m deep, was built on the ground; the limestone stylobate supported 12 Doric half-columns 2 m high, monolithic and engaged in square pilasters. There were many statues in the Valley of the Muses, some of the bases of which are in the Thebes Museum. Near the altar and the portico, possibly, was the great semicircle on which stood the statues of the nine Muses. The site has been excavated.
P. Roesch, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2003 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A famous mountain in Boeotia, near the Gulf of Corinth. It was sacred to Apollo and the Muses, who were thence called Heliconiades. This mountain was famed for the purity of its air, the abundance of its water, its fertile valleys, the density of its shades, and the beauty of the venerable trees which clothed its sides. On the summit was the grove of the Muses, where these divinities had their statues, and where also were statues of Apollo and Hermes, of Bacchus by Lysippus, of Orpheus, and of famous poets and musicians. A little below the grove was the fountain of Aganippe. The source Hippocrene was about twenty stadia above the grove. It is said to have burst forth when the horse Pegasus struck his hoof into the ground, whence its name, hippou krene. These two springs supplied two small rivers named Olmius and Permessus, which, after uniting their waters, flowed into the lake Copais, near Haliartus. The modern name of Helicon is Palaeovouni, and of Hippocrene, Kryopegadi, or "cold spring."
This extract is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Helicon (Helikon), a mountain in Boeotia lying between lake Copais
and the Corinthian gulf, and which may be regarded as a continuation of the range
of Parnassus. It is celebrated as the favourite haunt of the Muses, to whom the
epithet of Heliconian is frequently given by both the Greek and Roman poets (hai
Helikoniai parthenoi, Pind. i. 7. 57; hai Helikoniades, Hes. Theog. 1; Soph. Oed.
Tyr. 1008; Heliconiades, Lucret. iii. 1050; Heliconides, Pers. prooem. 4). Its
poetical celebrity is owing to the fact of its having been the seat of the earliest
school of poetry in Greece Proper; for at its foot was situated Ascra, the residence
of Hesiod, the most eminent poet of this school.
Helicon is a range of mountains with several summits, of which the
loftiest is a round mountain now called Paleovuni. Helicon is described by Strabo
as equal to Parnassus, both in height and circumference (ix. p. 409); but this
is a mistake as far as height is concerned, since the loftiest summit of Helicon
is barely 5000 feet high, while that of Parnassus is upwards of 8000 feet. Pausanias
says that of all the mountains in Greece Helicon is the most fertile, and produces
the greatest number of trees and shrubs, though none of a poisonous character,
while several of them are useful in counteracting the bites of venomous serpents.
(Paus. ix. 28.) There is, however, a considerable difference between the eastern
and western sides of the mountain; for while the eastern slopes abounded in springs,
groves, and fertile valleys, the western side was more rugged and less susceptible
of cultivation. It was the eastern or Boeotian side of Helicon which was especially
sacred to the Muses, and contained many objects connected with their worship,
of which Pausanias has left us an account. On Helicon was a sacred grove of the
Muses, to which Pausanias ascended from Ascra. On the left of the road, before
reaching the grove of the Muses, was the celebrated fountain of Aganippe (Aganippe),
which was believed to inspire those who drank of it, and from which the Muses
were called Aganippides. (Paus. ix. 25. § 5; Catull lxi. 26; Virg. Ecl. x. 12.)
Placing Ascra at Pyrguaki, there is little doubt that Aganippe is
the fountain which issues from the left bank of the torrent, flowing midway between
Paleo-panaghia and Pyrgaki. Around this fountain Leake observed numerous squared
blocks, and in the neighbouring fields stones and remains or habitations. The
position of the Grove of the Muses is fixed at St. Nicholas by an inscription
which Leake discovered there relating to the Museia, of games of the Muses, which
were celebrated there under the presidency of the Thespians. (Paus. ix. 31. §
3.) St. Nicholas is a church and small convent beautifully situated in a theatre-shaped
hollow at the foot of Mt. Marandali, which is one of the summits of Helicon. In
the time of Pausanias the grove of the Muses contained a larger number of statues
than any other place in Boeotia; and this writer has given an account of many
of them. The statues of the Muses were removed by Constantine from this place
to his new capital, where they were destroyed by fire in A.D. 404. (Euseb. Vit.
Const. iii. 54; Sozom. ii. 5; Zosim. ii. 21, v. 24, quoted by Leake.)
Twenty stadia above the Grove of the Muses was the fountain Hippocrene
(Hippokrene), which was said to have been produced by the horse Pegasus striking
the ground with his feet. (Paus. ix. 31. § 3; Strab. ix. p. 410.) Hippocrene was
probably at Makarioitissa, which is noted for a fine spring of water, although,
as Leake remarks, the twenty stadia of Pausanias accord better with the direct
distance than with that by the road. The two fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene
supplied the streams called Olmeius and Permessus, which, after uniting their
waters, flowed by Haliartus into the lake Copais. (Hes. Theog. 5, seq.; see Boeotia,
p. 413, a.)
Another part of Helicon, also sacred to the Muses, bore the name of
Mount Leibethrium (Leibethrion). It is described by Pausanias (ix. 34. § 4) as
distant 40 stadia from Coroneia, and is therefore probably the mountain of Zagara,
which is completely separated from the great heights of Helicon by an elevated
valley, in which are two villages named Zagara, and above them, on the rugged
mountain, a monastery; This is Leake's opinion; but Dodwell and Gell identify
it with Granitza, which is, however, more probably Laphystium. On Mount Leibethrium
there were statues of the Muses and of the Leibethrian nymphs, and two fountains
called Leibethrias and Petra, resembling the breasts of a woman, and pouring forth
water like milk. (Paus. ix. 34. § 4.) There was a grotto of the Leibethrian nymphs.
(Strab. ix. p. 410, x. p. 471; Serv. ad Virg. Ecl vii. 21.) (See Leake, Northern
Greece, vol. ii. pp. 141, 205, 489-500, 526.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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