MOSES, in the classic mythology, divinities originally included amongst the nymphs, but afterwards regarded as quite distinct from them. To them was ascribed the power of inspiring song, and poets and musicians were therefore regarded as their pupils and favorites. They were firstlionored among the Thracians, ancr aaPieria around Olympus as the original seat of that people, it came to be considered as the native country of the muses, who were therefore called Pierides. In the earliest period their number was three, though Homer sometimes speaks of a single muse, and once, at least, alludes to nine. This last is the number given by Hesiod in his Theogony, who also mentions their names—Clio (q.v.), Euterpe (q.v.), Thaleia (q.v.), 3lelpomene (q.v.), Terpsichore (q.v.), Erato, Polyhymnia (q.v.), Urania (q.v.), and Calliope (q.v.). Their origin is differently given, but the most widely spread account represented them as the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Homer speaks of them as the goddesses of song, and as dwelling on the
summit of Olympus. They are also often represented as the companions of Apollo, and as singing while he played upon the lyre at the banquets of the immortals. Various legends ascribed to them victories in musical competitions, particularly over the sirens •(q.v.). In the later classic times, particular provinces were assigned to them in connec tion with different departments of literature, science, and the fine arts; but the invoca tions addressed to them appear to have been, as in the ease of modern writers, merely formal imitations of the early pojets. Their worship among the Romans was a mere imitation of the Greeks, and never became truly national or popular. Among the places sacred to them were the wells of Aganippe and Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and the Castalian spring on Mount Parnassus.