MUSES, goddesses of the liberal arts and sciences ; originally nymphs of inspiring foun tains. Different accounts are given of their origin. There is also a great difference in their names and attributes. The most cele brated are the daughters of Zeus and M-nemo syne. According to Homer they lived upon Olympus. At first three Muses only were known: Melete (meditation), MnEme (memory, for the immortalizing of great deeds), and Aoide (song, for the accompaniment of story). Four Muses are sometimes mentioned as the daughters of Zeus and Plusia, namely, Melete, Aoide, ArchE and Thelxinoe. At other times they are said to have been seven, at others eight in number. Nine Muses are also enu merated as the daughters of Pierus, king of Emathia; but these are usually held to be dif ferent from the nine Muses who ultimately came to be generally recognized in Greece; and although the genuine Muses are sometimes called Pieridm, they are said to have derived the epithet not from Pierus but the district of Pieria. The names finally recognized as those of the Muses were Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania and Calliope. Among the adventures of the Muses their three contests with the Sirens, with the daughters of Pierus and with the bard Thamyris, in all of which they were victorious, are particularly famous. The cus
tomary occupation of the Muses was singing and dancing. Separate attributes were not till a comparatively late period assigned to the individual Muses. Calliope became the Muse of epic poetry. She was the most distinguished among the Muses, the protectress of kings, whom she endowed with eloquence and song.
Clio became the Muse of history; Euterpe of lyric poetry and music, particularly of wind instruments; Thalia of comedy; Miopomene of tragedy; Urania 9f astronomy; Erato of lyric and erotic poetry; Polyhymnia of the sublime hymn; and Terpsichore of the dance. They are commonly represented as beautiful virgins, adorned with wreaths of palm leaves, laurel, roses or the feathers of the Sirens. They dance in a circle, together with Apollo, who in later times was styled Musagetes, or leader of the Muses. Their worship extended from Greece to Italy. In Rome they had a separate temple, and a grove was sacred tO them. The swan, the nightingale and the grasshopper were also sacred to them.