MUSES (Mesa, in Latin ; Morlos, in Greek), the namo of certain sister goddesses in the Greek mythology, who were supposed to preside over the arts of poetry and music, and the sciences of history and astronomy. The original conception of the Muses must be sought for in that disposition of the human mind which prompts us to embody abstract ideas in a sensuous form. Such seems likewise to have been the origin of the Graces, Fates, Furies, and other mythological personages of that class. [GRACES.] In the instance of the Muses, the powers of memory, music, and song were personified into individual goddesses, who were supposed to inspire men with these gifts. At first the Muses were said to be only three : Mneme, that is, " memory ; " Melete, or "meditation ;" and Aoide, or " song" ; and they resided of old on Mount Helicon in Bccotia. (Pausaniae, ix. 29.) According to the poet Alemen, they were the daughters of Uranus and Gress or the earth. Cicero (' De Natur. Deorunu,' iii. 21) mentions four, namely, Thelxinoe, "mind-soother s" Arche, or beginning ;" Aoide ; and Melete; and he says that they were the offspring of the second Jupiter. He goes on to say that there were other Muses, nine in number, born of the third Jupiter (the son of Saturn) and of Mnemosyne; and also a third family of Muses, called Pierides by the poets, who were the daughters of the third Jupiter and Antiope, and were similar in their names and equal in number to the preceding. Hesiod, in his Theogony (53), reckons nine muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne,and gives their names as follows :—Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Thalia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, and Urania, and he says that Pieria in Macedonia was their first dwelling-place. These are the Muses generally alluded to by the poets. It appears that the worship of the Muses was introduced from Macedonia into Bcootia, Phoeis, and other parts of Hellas. The story of the contest of the Muses with the nine daughters of Pierus, a Macedonian, who pretended to rival the Muses in singing, but were vanquished and changed into magpies (Ovidius, Metarnorph.; v.) may have been, as some critics have conjectured, an
allegory originating in the national vanity of the Greeks, to show their superiority in the arts and sciences over their Macedonian neighbours. The Thracian bard Thamyris tried a liko chance, with a like result ; he had his eyes put out and was deprived of his lyre.
Homer mentions the Muses as the goddesses of song, who inhabited lofty Olympus, but he does not specify their number or names. In the second book of the Iliad he invokes them, " to whom all things are known," to assist his memory while he is enumerating the leaders of the Greek forces at Troy. The occupations of the Muses were singing, dancing, and attending the banquets of the Gods. They were the attendants of Apollo and also of Bacchus. The name Musa is supposed by some to be derived from a Greek verb which means " to discover," because the Muses were said to be acquainted with recondite myste ries and future events ; but this etymology is mere trifling, and the origin of the name is unknown. They were represented as handsome and modest virgins, with an intellectual expression of countenance, and dressed in long tunics, with wreaths of laurel, ivy, or palm leaves on their heads, or occasionally feathers, in allusion to their victory over the Sirens. It was only in later ages that peculiar attributes were given to each of them by the artists, and a peculiar department of science was assigned to each by the poets. In several paintings of Herculaneum they are represented with their respective attributes, and with their respective Titmice written under each. By comparing thistle with several rihievos, medals, and mosaics, their identity becomes confirmed. The following is n list of the Muses, with the allegorical meaning of their names, and the attributes commonly borne by them : Clio, from eteio, " to celebrate glorious deeds," is represented with a scroll in her hand, and also sometimes with a " scrinium " to keep MSS. in, by her side; and is commonly seated. She has been styled the Muse of History.