Calliope, " fine voice," is represented with tablets and a style ; some times with a trumpet in her hand ; in some instances, as at Hercu laneum, with a scroll like Clio. She was the Epic Muse.
Melpomene, " the singer," wears a royal diadem round her head, and a wreath of vine leaves, with cothurni on her feet ; she 130 stands as to exhibit her full size, and holds a mask in the loft hand, and a club in the right. She was the Muse of Tragedy.
Thalia, " the joyous," the Muse of Comedy, is also crowned with vine leaves, has a crook in one hand and a grotesque mask in the other.
Euterpe, " the pleasing," carries a double flute. She presided over music and lyric poetry.
Terpsichore, " dance-loving," carried a lyre and plectrum, and presided over choral poetry and dance.
Erato, " the lovely," carries also a lyre. Sho was the Muse of elegy and amatory song.
Polymnia or Polyhymnia, "of many songs," is represented wrapped up in her cloak, and buried in meditation, usually leaning her elbow on a rock, sometimes with the fore-finger of her right hand across her mouth, in token of reserve and caution. She was the Muse of religious song, allegories, and mythical strains.
Urania. " the heavenly," has the globe and compasses in her hands, which are the emblems of her calling, astronomy.
In the Greco-Roman rooms in the British Museum, aro several statues of different Muses; and tho whole of them are twice repro sented in bassi-rilievi : on the front of a sarcophagus of later Roman date ; and in the beautiful relief known as "Apotheosis of Homer," of the upper portions of which, containing the Muses, we give a cut. In this the Muses occur in the following order : commencing on the left of the upper line (below the figure of Zeus) we have—Calliope, with her tablets; Clio ; Thalia ; Euterpe, holding out the double flute ; Melpomene, standing on a rock and addressing Zeus ; next her, on the extreme right, is Erato (though some German arclucologists take it to be Thalia, and that just noticed as Thalia to be Erato—the lyre is, however, the usual attribute of Erato); the first figure on the left in the lower row is Terpsichore ; the next, Urania; the next, Polyhymnia.
The figure more to the right is Apollo Musagetes, in female attire, within the Corycian cave, having a plectrum in his right hand, the lyre in his left, and at his feet the Delphic cortina, or tripod cover, bow, and quiver ; the Pythian by his side is offering a libation in a paters.
The corruption which, in the course of ages, pervaded mythological symbols, did not spare the Muses, and accordingly we find their chastity denied by several writers. According to Apollodorus, Ovid, and others, Clio had Orpheus by Apollo, Euterpe had Rhccsus by the Strymon, Calliope was the mother of the Sirens by Achelous, &c.
The favourite haunts of the Muses were, Mount Parnassus in Phocis, Helicon in Bccotia, Pierius, Pindus, and Olympus, in Thessaly, &c. The swan, the nightingale, and the grasshopper were sacred to them. Thy Roman poets called the Muses Camenm, an Etruscan name—for it appears that the Etruscans had also their Muses (Micalil and also Pierides.
A magnificent festival called Museia (Macreut) was held in honour'of the Muses at Thespho in Bmotia, every fifty years.
Symbolik and Mytholoyie ; Petersen, De hfusarum Origine, in Miinter's Miscellanea Hafniensia ; Hermannus, De Musis fiuvialibus ; Muller, Handbuch der Archifologie, § 393, and Denkmaler der Alten Kunst. &c., taf.lviii. lix., 732-750; Millin, Galerie Mytholobigue ; Keighticy's Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy.)