1.
Dionysus
–
Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male, bearded and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is also known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is also a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
Dionysus
–
2nd-century Roman statue of Dionysus, after a
Hellenistic model (ex-coll.
Cardinal Richelieu,
Louvre)
Dionysus
–
Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons. Roman ca. AD 260–270
Dionysus
–
Birth of Dionysus, on a small sarcophagus that may have been made for a child (
Walters Art Museum)
Dionysus
–
Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by
Praxiteles, (
Archaeological Museum of Olympia).
2.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
3.
Cothurnus
–
A buskin is a knee- or calf-length boot made of leather or cloth which laces closed, but is open across the toes. It was worn by Athenian tragic actors, hunters and soldiers in Ancient Greek, Etruscan, and Roman societies. The word buskin, only recorded in English since 1503 meaning half boot, is of unknown origin, byzantine emperors were formally clad in purple buskins, embroidered in gold with double-headed eagles. The buskins can be worn over the episcopal sandals, regular dress socks with regular dress shoes, in liturgical colour they correspond to the chasuble, but are never worn with black. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
Cothurnus
–
Buskins
4.
Zeus
–
Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
Zeus
–
The Jupiter de Smyrne, discovered in
Smyrna in 1680
Zeus
–
The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church.
Zeus
–
Zeus, at the Getty Villa, A.D. 1 - 100 by unknown.
Zeus
–
"
Cave of Zeus ",
Mount Ida (Crete).
5.
Mnemosyne
–
Mnemosyne, source of the word mnemonic, was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. A Titanide, or Titaness, she was the daughter of the Titans Uranus, zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights, thus birthing the nine Muses. Mnemosyne also presided over a pool in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe, dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. In Orphism, the initiated were taught to instead drink from the Mnemosyne, the river of memory, for more about the incriptions connection with Orphic poetry, see Zuntz,1971. Although she was categorized as one of the Titans in the Theogony, Titans were hardly worshiped in Ancient Greece, and were thought of as so archaic as to belong to the ancient past. They resembled historical figures more than anything else, later, once written literature overtook the oral recitation of epics, Plato made reference in his Euthydemus to the older tradition of invoking Mnemosyne. The character Socrates prepares to recount a story and says “ὥστ᾽ ἔγωγε, καθάπερ οἱ ποιηταί, δέομαι ἀρχόμενος τῆς διηγήσεως Μούσας τε καὶ Μνημοσύνην ἐπικαλεῖσθαι. ”Which translates to “Consequently, like the poets, I must needs begin my narrative with an invocation of the Muses and Memory”. Aristophanes also harked back to the tradition in his play Lysistrata when a drunken Spartan ambassador invokes her name while prancing around pretending to be a bard from times of yore. Mnemosyne was one of the deities worshiped in the cult of Asclepius that formed in Ancient Greece around the 5th century BC. Asclepius, a Greek hero and god of medicine, was said to have been able to cure maladies, the exact order of the offerings and prayers varied by location, and the supplicant often made an offering to Mnemosyne. After making an offering to Asclepius himself, in some locations, the hope was that a prayer to Mnemosyne would help the supplicant remember any visions had while sleeping there. Titans in popular culture, Mnemosyne Mnemonic Meme Moneta Aeschylus, Persians, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press,2009, online version at Harvard University Press. Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, caldwell, Richard, Hesiods Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, hymn to Hermes, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1914, online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Mnemosyne
–
Mnemosyne (1881), a
Pre-Raphaelite interpretation of the goddess by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
6.
Calliope
–
In Greek mythology, Calliope is the muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry, so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. She is spoken of by Hesiod and Ovid as the Chief of all Muses and she is mostly stated to be the eldest of the Muses, sometimes vying with her sister Urania for the position. Calliope also had two sons, Orpheus and Linus, by either Apollo or the king Oeagrus of Thrace. She taught Orpheus verses for singing, according to Hesiod, she was also the wisest of the Muses, as well as the most assertive. Calliope married Oeagrus close to Pimpleia, Olympus and she is said to have defeated the daughters of Pierus, king of Thessaly, in a singing match, and then, to punish their presumption, turned them into magpies. She was sometimes believed to be Homers muse for the Iliad, the Roman epic poet, Virgil, invokes her in the Aeneid. Calliope is usually seen with a tablet in her hand. At times, she is depicted carrying a roll of paper or a book or wearing a gold crown and she would also be seen with her children. The Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, in his Divine Comedy, makes reference to Calliope, Media related to Calliope at Wikimedia Commons Theoi. com – Calliope Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Calliope
–
Detail of painting The Muses Urania and Calliope by
Simon Vouet, in which she holds a copy of the
Odyssey
7.
Clio
–
CLIO is the Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory, a prototype detector for gravitational waves. It is testing cryogenic mirror technologies for the future Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector, CLIO is an optical interferometer with two perpendicular arms each of 100 m length. The mirrors are cooled to 20 K, this reduces various thermal noise sources which trouble other gravity observatories, CLIO is situated 1000 m underground in the Kamioka Observatory, Gifu Prefecture. CLIO is one of the facilities for physics of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research of the University of Tokyo
Clio
Clio
8.
Euterpe
–
In Greek mythology, Euterpe was one of the Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne, fathered by Zeus. Called the Giver of delight, when later poets assigned roles to each of the Muses, in late Classical times she was named muse of lyric poetry and depicted holding a flute. A few say she invented the aulos or double-flute, though most mythographers credit Marsyas with its invention, pindar and other sources, describe the Thracian king Rhesus, who appears in the Iliad, as son of Euterpe and the river-god Strymon, Homer calls him son of Eioneus. Muse Muses in popular culture Euterpe by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Euterpe
–
Euterpe on the replica of a
Roman mosaic in
Vichten
9.
Terpsichore
–
In Greek mythology, Terpsichore delight in dancing was one of the nine Muses and goddess of dance and chorus. She lends her name to the word terpsichorean which means of or relating to dance and she is usually depicted sitting down, holding a lyre, accompanying the ballerinas choirs with her music. Her name comes from the Greek words τέρπω and χoρός and she is also a mother of the sirens and Parthenope. The British 32-gun frigate HMS Terpsichore commanded by Captain Bowen participated in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Terpsichore is also the name of a street in New Orleans historic neighborhoods of Faubourg Lafayette and the Lower Garden District. It runs alongside Euterpe and Melpomene streets, also named for Greek muses, Terpsichorean is also the name of the Choreography Society of Hans Raj College, University of Delhi. Terpsichore figures among her sisters in Hesiods Theogony, when The Histories of Herodotus were divided by later editors into nine books, each book was named after a Muse. Terpsichore was the name of the fifth book, the character of Wilkins Micawber, Esq, Jr. is described as a votary of Terpsichore, in an Australian newspaper brought to London by Dan Peggotty in 1850 novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. T. S. Eliot in the poem Jellicle Cats from Old Possums Book of Practical Cats, terpischore Choral Dance is the name of a chapter in Theresa Chas Dictee. Some Terpsichore is the title of a story in a 2014 book, Thunderstruck and Other Stories. The Chaos is a poem where Terpsichore is mentioned in a line, Terpsichore is also found in François Couperins Second Ordre from the Pièces de clavecin, and in the third version of Handels opera Il pastor fido. This opera is sometimes referred to as Terpsicore and Il pastor fido, the Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn song Come Dance with Me includes the lyric what an evening for some Terpsichore. However it is sung as a word with the chore component pronounced like core rather than curry. The Russian singer Origa sings a song, Tersicore, canadian punk band Gob has a song called Terpsichore on their album Apt. The eighteenth century French dancer and courtesan Marie-Madeleine Guimard named the private theater in her private palace the Temple of Terpsichore, Terpsichore in Sneakers is the title of a 1980 study of postmodern dance by dance historian and critic Sally Banes. The song Terpsichora is included on J-Pop singer Akiko Shikatas 2007 album Istoria, the album Cool by Bob James and Earl Klugh features a track called Terpsichore. He then proceeds to take a lesson with Penny, culminating in a paired tap routine. In the 1947 film Down To Earth, Rita Hayworth plays Terpsichore, in the 1948 Musical Comedy film April Showers, starring Jack Carson and Ann Sothern, Carson plays a Victorian Era vaudevillian. While performing an act with his son, Buster, Buster asks Shall we dance Mr. Lovejoy, Carson replies by saying Terpsichore Mr. Gay
Terpsichore
–
Roman statue of Terpsichore from
Hadrian's Villa, presently at the
Prado Museum (
Madrid).
Terpsichore
–
Terpsichore, Muse of Music and ballet, an oil on canvas painting by
Jean-Marc Nattier (1739).
10.
Erato
–
In Greek mythology, Erato /ˈɛrətoʊ/ is one of the Greek Muses. The name would mean desired or lovely, if derived from the root as Eros. Erato is the Muse of lyric poetry, in the Orphic hymn to the Muses, it is Erato who charms the sight. Since the Renaissance she has mostly been shown with a wreath of myrtle and roses, holding a lyre, or a small kithara, in Simon Vouets representations, two turtle-doves are eating seeds at her feet. Other representations may show her holding an arrow, reminding one of the eros, the feeling that she inspires in everybody. Erato was named with the muses in Hesiods Theogony. She was also invoked at the beginning of a lost poem, Rhadine and this choice may express Virgils love for his native land, but in any case shows the need for a new creative force at this change in the direction of the poem. Facebook Page for Erato Theoi. com - Erato Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Erato
–
Roman statue of Erato, 2nd century AD. The muse is depicted playing the
kithara or
lyre.
Erato
–
Erato with Eros by
Simon Vouet.
11.
Thalia (muse)
–
Thalia, also spelled Thaleia, was the goddess who presided over comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context her name means flourishing, because the praises in her songs flourish through time and she was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes, other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes different parents. She was portrayed as a woman with a joyous air, crowned with ivy, wearing boots. Many of her statues also hold a bugle and a trumpet, Muses in popular culture Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, media related to Thalia at Wikimedia Commons Theoi. com - Thaleia Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Thalia (muse)
–
Roman statue of Thalia from
Hadrian's Villa, now at the
Prado Museum (
Madrid)
Thalia (muse)
–
Muse of
comedy and
idyllic poetry,
Jean-Marc Nattier
Thalia (muse)
–
Thalia, Muse Of Comedy by
Louis-Michel van Loo.
12.
Polyhymnia
–
Polyhymnia, also spelt Polymnia was in Greek mythology the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn, dance, and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime. Her name comes from the Greek words poly meaning many and hymnos and she is depicted as very serious, pensive and meditative, and often holding a finger to her mouth, dressed in a long cloak and veil and resting her elbow on a pillar. Polyhymnia is also credited as being the Muse of geometry. In Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus Siculus wrote, Polyhymnia, because by her great praises she brings distinction to writers whose works have won for them immortal fame and she appears in Dantes Divine Comedy, Paradiso. Canto XXIII, line 56, and is referenced in works of fiction. In astrology, there are nine asteroids, each one named after a different Muse and this specific one is a main belt asteroid discovered by Jean Chacornac, a French astrologer, in 1854. On Mount Parnassus, there was a spring that was sacred to Polyhymnia and it was said to flow between two big rocks above Delphi, then down into a large square basin. The water was used by the Pythia, who were priests and priestesses, media related to Polyhymnia at Wikimedia Commons Primary sources and basic information concerning Polyhymnia Polyhymnia in painting Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Polyhymnia
–
Roman statue of Polyhymnia, 2nd century AD, depicting her in the act of dancing.
Polyhymnia
–
Cast of Polyhymnia,
Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Polyhymnia
–
Polyhymnia, Friedrich Ochs, 1857
Polyhymnia
–
Polyhymnia, Milano
13.
Urania
–
Urania, also spelt Ourania, was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy and a daughter of Zeus by Mnemosyne and also a great granddaughter of Uranus. Some accounts list her as the mother of the musician Linus by Apollo and she is often associated with Universal Love and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes identified as the eldest of the sisters, Urania inherited Zeus majesty and power. Those who are most concerned with philosophy and the heavens are dearest to her and those who have been instructed by her she raises aloft to heaven, for it is a fact that imagination and the power of thought lift mens souls to heavenly heights. —From An Ode To Music by James G. Percival During the Renaissance and she is usually represented with a celestial globe to which she points with a little staff. She is able to foretell the future by the arrangement of the stars, Urania is the namesake for astronomical observatories in Berlin, Budapest, Bucharest, Vienna, Zurich, Antwerp and Uraniborg on the island of Hven. The main belt asteroid 30 Urania was also named after her, there is Polish astronomical magazine Urania - Postępy Astronomii, which emerged from Urania and Postępy Astronomii magazines. In University of São Paulo, the logo of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, the official seal of the U. S. Naval Observatory portrays Urania. Urania is a training vessel for the Royal Netherlands Naval College. Ms. Urania in the Royal Netherlands Navy since 1832, Urania is the name traditionally given to the eighth book of Herodotus Histories. Urania Cottage was a refuge for women established by the writer Charles Dickens in Lime Grove, Shepherd’s Bush. The funding was provided by millionaire and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, of the banking family. Some of the inmates may have provided inspiration for certain of the characters in Dickens novels. At Columbia University, toward the end of 18th century, the Urania Society was created for the improvement of oratory and literary skills, Urania Street is situated between Polymnia and Felicity streets in New Orleans. Urania is a name of the hall in Olsztyn. Muse magazine, until 2015 when the magazine was revamped, featured Urania as one of the characters in the Kokopelli and she was the only original muse who remained among the New Muses featured in the magazine. The other Old Muses were said to be living in a retirement home, Urania is the name of a popular female-fronted rock band in Honduras. Urania is used as the muse in Paradise Lost books 7 and 9, Urania is invoked in Shelleys Adonais
Urania
–
Urania, a restored Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC,
Hadrian's Villa.
14.
Siren (mythology)
–
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on small islands called Sirenum scopuli. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks, although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father, when Sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous, with Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Chthon. In Euripides play, Helen, Helen in her anguish calls upon Winged maidens, although they lured mariners, the Greeks portrayed the Sirens in their meadow starred with flowers and not as sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys, Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homers Odyssey. Their number is reported as from two to five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, according to Ovid, the Sirens were the companions of young Persephone. They were given wings by Demeter to search for Persephone when she was abducted, however, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. Their song is continually calling on Persephone, the term siren song refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. As Jane Ellen Harrison notes of The Ker as siren, It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the Sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh. The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths, with a promise that he will live to tell them, they sing, Once he hears to his hearts content, sails on. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the plain of Troy when the gods willed it so— all that comes to pass on the fertile earth. They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common and their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of song is death. That the sailors flesh is rotting away, suggests it has not been eaten and it has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to provide food for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave. According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them, Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with womens heads, bird feathers. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps
Siren (mythology)
–
The Siren,
Edward Armitage, 1888
Siren (mythology)
–
The Siren, by
John William Waterhouse (c. 1900), depicted as a fish-chimera
Siren (mythology)
–
Roman mosaic: Odysseus and the Sirens (
Bardo National Museum)
Siren (mythology)
–
Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the
Siren Painter, c. 480–470 BC, (
British Museum)
15.
Persephone
–
In Greek mythology, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, Persephone was married to Hades, the god-king of the underworld. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of gods like Attis, Adonis and Osiris. Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus, the origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities. Persephone was commonly worshipped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries, to her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain and she may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina, and her mother, persephonē is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia, in other dialects she was known under variant names, Persephassa, Persephatta, or simply Korē. Plato calls her Pherepapha in his Cratylus, because she is wise, There are also the forms Periphona and Phersephassa. The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language, an alternative etymology is from φέρειν φόνον, pherein phonon, to bring death. John Chadwick speculatively relates the name of Persephone with the name of Perse, the Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē. Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name derived by the Romans from proserpere, to shoot forth. In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, c, and Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears. The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess, the surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a goddess is Kore and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina the mistress. Plutarch identifies her with spring and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields, in the Eleusinian mysteries her return is the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi. The Orphic Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, Zagreus, as a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names. However it is possible some of them were the names of original goddesses
Persephone
–
Persephone opening a
cista containing the infant
Adonis, on a
pinax from
Locri
Persephone
–
Persephone or "the deceased woman" holding a
pomegranate. Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. National archaeological museum in
Palermo, Italy
Persephone
–
Cinerary altar with tabula representing the rape of
Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century CE.
Rome, Baths of Diocletian
Persephone
–
Statue of Isis-Persephone with a
sistrum.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum,
Crete
16.
Demeter
–
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito, she of the Grain, as the giver of food or grain, though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of c, 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the two mistresses and the king may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents, all three dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name. It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription, on the other hand,
Demeter
–
Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling
Metaneira, who offers the triune wheat (c. 340 BC)
Demeter
–
Didrachme from Paros island, struck at the
Cyclades and representing Demeter
Demeter
–
Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter
Persephone-Kore at Selinunte, Sicily 6th century BC.
Demeter
–
Demeter rejoiced, for her daughter was by her side
17.
Ceres (mythology)
–
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Romes so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad and her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustratio of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, Ceres is the only one of Romes many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Romes equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature. Roman etymologists thought ceres derived from the Latin verb gerere, to bear, bring forth, produce, because the goddess was linked to pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Romes neighbours in the Regal period, including the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, an archaic Faliscan inscription of c.600 BC asks her to provide far, which was a dietary staple of the Mediterranean world. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres name was synonymous with grain and, by extension and she had the power to fertilise, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow and this was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails presented in an earthenware pot, in a rural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca praecidanea. Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample, Ovid tells that Ceres is content with little, provided that her offerings are casta. Ceres main festival, Cerealia, was held from mid to late April and it was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games. From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ludi scaenici through April 12 to 18, W. H. Roscher lists these deities among the indigitamenta, names used to invoke specific divine functions. The adult males of the party waited at the grooms house. A wedding sacrifice was offered to Tellus on the brides behalf, Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as a worthy mark of weddings because our women, and especially nurses call the female genitalia porcus. Spaeth believes Ceres may have included in the sacrificial dedication, because she is closely identified with Tellus and, as Ceres legifera. In the most solemn form of marriage, confarreatio, the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, from at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced Ceres connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The promotion of this cult coincides with the rise of a nobility, an increased birthrate among plebeian commoners. Several of Ceres ancient Italic precursors are connected to fertility and motherhood
Ceres (mythology)
–
Seated Ceres from
Emerita Augusta, present-day
Mérida, Spain (National Museum of Roman Art, 1st century AD)
Ceres (mythology)
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Ceres (mythology)
–
Funerary statue of an unknown woman, depicted as Ceres holding wheat. Mid 3rd century AD. (
Louvre)
Ceres (mythology)
–
Porcelain model of Ceres with cereals by
Dominik Auliczek of the
Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory, late 18th century
18.
Proserpina
–
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were based on those of Greek Persephone and her mother Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture. The Romans identified Proserpina with their native fertility goddess Libera, daughter of the grain and agriculture goddess Ceres, just as Persephone was thought to be a daughter of Demeter, Romans made Proserpina a daughter of Demeters Roman equivalent, Ceres. Her name is a Latinisation of Persephone, perhaps influenced by the Latin proserpere, the cult originated in southern Italy and was probably based on the women-only Greek Thesmophoria, a mystery cult to Demeter and Persephone as Mother and Maiden. It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods with a foreign and external knowledge and their joint cult recalls Demeters search for Persephone, after the latters rape and abduction into the underworld by Hades. At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old and it made no reference to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult continued to play a central role in plebeian culture, as a patron and protector of plebeian rights, freedoms and values. Unmarried girls should emulate the chastity of Proserpina, the maiden, married women should seek to emulate Ceres and their rites were intended to secure a good harvest, and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries. A Temple of Proserpina was located in a suburb of Melite, in modern Mtarfa, the temples ruins were quarried between the 17th and 18th centuries, and only a few fragments survive. The best-known myth surrounding Proserpina is of her abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother Ceres frantic search for her, renamed thus, the king of the underworld is distanced from his consorts violent abduction. In the early 1st century Ovid gives two versions of the myth in Latin, one in Book 5 of his Metamorphoses. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor to hit Pluto with one of his arrows and he abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in the underworld of which he was the ruler. In her desperation Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step. Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina, Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to the world of the living. This meant that she would have to live six months of year with him. In another version of the story, Proserpina ate only four pomegranate seeds, when Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with Jupiter, saying that since she had stolen his pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him four months of the year in return. For this reason, in spring when Ceres receives her back, the crops blossom. In the autumn Ceres changes the leaves to shades of brown, during the time that Proserpina resides with Pluto, the world goes through winter, a time when the earth is barren. The most extensive myth of Proserpina in Latin is Claudians and it is closely connected with that of Orpheus and Eurydice. But Orpheus could not resist a backward glance, so Eurydice was forever lost to him
Proserpina
–
A
Pre-Raphaelite Proserpine (1873–77) by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (
Tate Gallery,
London)
Proserpina
–
The rape of Proserpina
Proserpina
–
Copy of The Rape of Proserpina by Vincenzo de' Rossi (it), on view near
Cliveden House
Proserpina
–
Rape of Proserpenie, by
Luca Giordano
19.
Hades
–
Hades was the ancient Greek chthonic god of the underworld, which eventually took his name. In Greek mythology, Hades was regarded as the oldest son of Cronus and Rhea and he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their fathers generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, Hades was often portrayed with his three-headed guard dog Cerberus. The Etruscan god Aita and Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus were eventually taken as equivalent to the Greek Hades and merged as Pluto, the origin of Hades name is uncertain, but has generally been seen as meaning The Unseen One since antiquity. Modern linguists have proposed the Proto-Greek form *Awides, the earliest attested form is Aḯdēs, which lacks the proposed digamma. West argues instead for a meaning of the one who presides over meeting up from the universality of death. In Homeric and Ionic Greek, he was known as Áïdēs, other poetic variations of the name include Aïdōneús and the inflected forms Áïdos, Áïdi, and Áïda, whose reconstructed nominative case *Áïs is, however, not attested. The name as it came to be known in classical times was Háidēs, later the iota became silent, then a subscript marking, and finally omitted entirely. Perhaps from fear of pronouncing his name, around the 5th century BC, Plouton became the Roman god who both rules the underworld and distributed riches from below. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the Eleusinian icon Ploutos, and from this he received a priestess. More elaborate names of the genre were Ploutodótēs or Ploutodotḗr meaning giver of wealth. Epithets of Hades include Agesander and Agesilaos, both from ágō and anḗr or laos, describing Hades as the god who carries away all. He was also referred to as Zeus Katachthonios, meaning the Zeus of the Underworld, by avoiding his actual name. In Greek mythology, Hades the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and he had three sisters, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera, as well as two brothers, Zeus, the youngest of the three, and Poseidon. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings, after their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the Titanomachy, a divine war. The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods, following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad, Hades and his two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots for realms to rule. Some myths suggest that Hades was dissatisfied with his turnout, but had no choice, Hades obtained his wife and queen, Persephone, through abduction at the behest of Zeus. Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology, Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil, his role was often maintaining relative balance
Hades
–
Hades with
Cerberus
Hades
–
Persephone and Hades: tondo of an Attic red-figured
kylix, ca. 440–430 BC
Hades
–
Oil painting of Hades abducting Persephone. 18th Century. Oil on wood with gilt background. Property of Missing Link Antiques.
Hades
–
Mictlan
20.
Pluto (mythology)
–
Pluto was the ruler of the underworld in classical mythology. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which more common as the name of the underworld itself. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto represents a positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. The name Ploutōn came into usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as a stern ruler. The couple received souls in the afterlife, and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, Hades by contrast had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone. Pluto and Hades differ in character, but they are not distinct figures, in Greek cosmogony, the god received the rule of the underworld in a three-way division of sovereignty over the world, with his brothers Zeus ruling the Sky and Poseidon the Sea. His central narrative is the abduction of Persephone to be his wife, under the name Pluto, the god appears in other myths in a secondary role, mostly as the possessor of a quest-object, and especially in the descent of Orpheus or other heroes to the underworld. Plūtō is the Latinized form of the Greek Plouton, Plutos Roman equivalent is Dis Pater, whose name is most often taken to mean Rich Father and is perhaps a direct translation of Plouton. Pluto was also identified with the obscure Roman Orcus, like Hades the name of both a god of the underworld and the underworld as a place. The borrowed Greek name Pluto is sometimes used for the ruler of the dead in Latin literature, Pluto becomes the most common name for the classical ruler of the underworld in subsequent Western literature and other art forms. The name Plouton does not appear in Greek literature of the Archaic period, in Hesiods Theogony, the six children of Cronus and Rhea are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia. The male children divide the world into three realms, Hades takes Persephone by force from her mother Demeter, with the consent of Zeus. The resemblance of the name Ploutos to Plouton and it has been noted, cannot be accidental. Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephones husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility, demeters son Plutus merges in the narrative tradition with her son-in-law Pluto, redefining the implacable chariot-driver Hades whose horses trample the flowering earth. Plouton was one of several names for Hades, described in the Iliad as the god most hateful to mortals. Plato says that people prefer the name Plouton, giver of wealth, the name was understood as referring to the boundless riches of the earth, both the crops on its surface—he was originally a god of the land—and the mines hidden within it. What is sometimes taken as confusion of the two gods Plouton and Ploutos held or acquired a significance in antiquity. The Roman poet Ennius, the figure in the Hellenization of Latin literature, considered Pluto a Greek god to be explained in terms of the Roman equivalents Dis Pater
Pluto (mythology)
–
Pluto
velificans, with a
Cupid attending his abduction of
Proserpina in a
four-horse chariot (Roman cinerary altar,
Antonine Era, 2nd century)
Pluto (mythology)
–
Ploutos with the
horn of abundance, in the company of
Dionysos (4th century BC)
Pluto (mythology)
–
Orpheus in the Underworld before Pluto and his queen (1880), by
Henryk Siemiradzki
Pluto (mythology)
–
Hydria (ca. 340 BC) depicting figures from the Eleusinian Mysteries
21.
Sirens (mythology)
–
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on small islands called Sirenum scopuli. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks, although a Sophocles fragment makes Phorcys their father, when Sirens are named, they are usually as daughters of the river god Achelous, with Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, or Chthon. In Euripides play, Helen, Helen in her anguish calls upon Winged maidens, although they lured mariners, the Greeks portrayed the Sirens in their meadow starred with flowers and not as sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys, Sirens are found in many Greek stories, notably in Homers Odyssey. Their number is reported as from two to five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, according to Ovid, the Sirens were the companions of young Persephone. They were given wings by Demeter to search for Persephone when she was abducted, however, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the Sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone. Their song is continually calling on Persephone, the term siren song refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad conclusion. As Jane Ellen Harrison notes of The Ker as siren, It is strange and beautiful that Homer should make the Sirens appeal to the spirit, not to the flesh. The siren song is a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths, with a promise that he will live to tell them, they sing, Once he hears to his hearts content, sails on. We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured on the plain of Troy when the gods willed it so— all that comes to pass on the fertile earth. They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common and their song takes effect at midday, in a windless calm. The end of song is death. That the sailors flesh is rotting away, suggests it has not been eaten and it has been suggested that, with their feathers stolen, their divine nature kept them alive, but unable to provide food for their visitors, who starved to death by refusing to leave. According to Hyginus, sirens were fated to live only until the mortals who heard their songs were able to pass by them, Sirens were believed to combine women and birds in various ways. In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with womens heads, bird feathers. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings, playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps
Sirens (mythology)
–
The Siren,
Edward Armitage, 1888
Sirens (mythology)
–
The Siren, by
John William Waterhouse (c. 1900), depicted as a fish-chimera
Sirens (mythology)
–
Roman mosaic: Odysseus and the Sirens (
Bardo National Museum)
Sirens (mythology)
–
Odysseus and the Sirens, eponymous vase of the
Siren Painter, c. 480–470 BC, (
British Museum)
22.
Muses in popular culture
–
The nine Muses of Greek mythology have been portrayed in many different modern fictional works. In 2010, a South Korean all-female idol group debuted under the name Nine Muses, in the anime series Love Live. The musical group, μs, is named after the Muses, the muse Calliope is a character in the graphic novel Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. Her story, Calliope is in the 1990 trade paperback Dream Country, according to the comics canon, Calliope was the youngest muse as well as a one-time lover of Dream, by whom she bore Orpheus. The muses are mentioned several times throughout Rick Riordans mythological series, Percy Jackson, Calliope features in the 1997 Walt Disney Pictures film Hercules, appearing alongside the muses Clio, Melpomene, Terpsichore and Thalia, who collectively serve as a Greek chorus. She was voiced by Tony Award winner Lillias White, who reprised the role in the subsequent TV series. In episode 126 from the animated series Cyberchase, Calliope plays her lyre and shes one of the four Mount Olympus band members with Apollo the Greek god of music, Himaropa the siren, and the Beast. In the anime series Guilty Crown, main character Inori Yuzuriha is best known for her song Euterpe, in Supernatural episode Fan Fiction Calliope appears as the antagonist. Several muses are the focus of the 2007 musical Xanadu, which is based on the 1980 film of the same name, the story revolves around Clio, who is played by Kerry Butler. In Batman, The Animated Series, Clio is the name of criminal mastermind Maxie Zeuss girlfriend, Maxie suffers from a god complex, believing that he is the Greek god Zeus and that his girlfriend is a Muse. The Cleo of Alpha Chi literary society at Trinity College is named after Clio, Clio features in the 1997 Walt Disney Pictures film Hercules, appearing alongside the muses Calliope, Melpomene, Terpsichore and Thalia, who collectively serve as a Greek chorus. She was voiced by Vanéese Y, thomas, who reprised the role in the subsequent TV series. Clio is the character in the 2007 musical Xanadu, which is based on the 1980 film of the same name. She was played by Kerry Butler in the original Broadway production, the muse Clio is a character in Piers Anthonys Xanth series. She features as the protagonist in the book Currant Events, the muse Clio is a main supporting character in Jodi Taylors The Chronicles of St. Marys series - using the name Mrs. Partridge as a cover while working as the personal assistant to Dr. Bairstowe. Her true identity as Clio is known only by the series protagonist Dr. Maxwell, erato is a character in the 2007 musical Xanadu, which is based on the 1980 film of the same name. She was played by Kenita R. Miller in the original Broadway production, Melpomene features in the 1997 Walt Disney Pictures film Hercules, appearing alongside the muses Calliope, Clio, Terpsichore and Thalia, who collectively serve as a Greek chorus. She was voiced by Broadway actress Cheryl Freeman, who reprised the role in the subsequent TV series, Melpomene is a character in the 2007 musical Xanadu, which is based on the 1980 film of the same name
Muses in popular culture
–
Sarcophagus known as the "Muses Sarcophagus", representing the nine Muses and their attributes. Marble, first half of the 2nd century AD, found by the Via Ostiense.
Muses in popular culture
–
Terpsichore holding an
Aeolian harp. Sculpted in marble by
John Walsh in 1771.
Muses in popular culture
–
The
Greco-Roman mask of Thalia in a Three Stooges comedy short
title card.
23.
Muses
–
The Muses are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts in Greek mythology. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs and they were later adopted by the Romans as a part of their pantheon. In current English usage, muse can refer in general to a person who inspires an artist, writer, the earliest known records of the Nine Muses are from Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod. Some ancient authorities thought that the Nine Muses were of Thracian origin, there, a tradition persisted that the Muses had once been three in number. They were again called Melete or Practice, Mneme or Memory, three ancient Muses were also reported in Plutarchs Quaestiones Convivales. According to Pausanias in the second century AD, there were three original Muses, worshiped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Aoidḗ, Melétē, and Mnḗmē. Together, these three form the picture of the preconditions of poetic art in cult practice. In Delphi three Muses were worshiped as well, but with other names, Nḗtē, Mésē, and Hýpatē, alternatively they later were called Kēphisṓ, Apollōnís, and Borysthenís, which names characterize them as daughters of Apollo. In later tradition, a set of four Muses were recognized, Thelxinóē, Aoidḗ Archē, one of the people frequently associated with the Muses was Pierus. By some he was called the father of a total of seven Muses, called Neilṓ, Tritṓnē, Asōpṓ, Heptápora, Achelōís, Tipoplṓ, and Rhodía. According to Hesiods Theogony, they were daughters of Zeus, the second king of the gods. For Alcman and Mimnermus, they were even more primordial, springing from the deities, Uranus. Sometimes the Muses are referred to as water nymphs, associated with the springs of Helicon and it was said that the winged horse Pegasus touched his hooves to the ground on Helicon, causing four sacred springs to burst forth, from which the muses were born. Athena later tamed the horse and presented him to the muses, classical writers set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousagetēs. In one myth, the Muses judged a contest between Apollo and Marsyas and they also gathered the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, son of Calliope, and buried them. In a later myth, Thamyris challenged them to a singing contest and they won and punished Thamyris by blinding him and robbing him of his singing ability. He thus challenged the Muses to a match, resulting in his daughters, Pausanias records a tradition of two generations of Muses, the first are the daughters of Uranus and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia, some Greek writers give the names of the nine Muses as Kallichore, Helike, Eunike, Thelxinoë, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Eukelade, Dia, and Enope
Muses
–
The nine muses —
Clio,
Thalia,
Erato,
Euterpe,
Polyhymnia,
Calliope,
Terpsichore,
Urania, and
Melpomene — on a Roman
sarcophagus (2nd century AD, from the
Louvre)
Muses
–
Muse reading a scroll, perhaps
Clio (Attic red-figure
lekythos, Boeotia c. 435–425 BC)
Muses
–
Gustave Moreau, Hesiod and the Muse (1891)—
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Muses
–
Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred
poetry, sacred
hymn and
eloquence as well as agriculture and
pantomime.
24.
Thalia (Muse)
–
Thalia, also spelled Thaleia, was the goddess who presided over comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context her name means flourishing, because the praises in her songs flourish through time and she was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes, other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes different parents. She was portrayed as a woman with a joyous air, crowned with ivy, wearing boots. Many of her statues also hold a bugle and a trumpet, Muses in popular culture Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, media related to Thalia at Wikimedia Commons Theoi. com - Thaleia Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
Thalia (Muse)
–
Roman statue of Thalia from
Hadrian's Villa, now at the
Prado Museum (
Madrid)
Thalia (Muse)
–
Muse of
comedy and
idyllic poetry,
Jean-Marc Nattier
Thalia (Muse)
–
Thalia, Muse Of Comedy by
Louis-Michel van Loo.
25.
Virtual International Authority File
–
The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
Virtual International Authority File
–
Screenshot 2012
26.
Integrated Authority File
–
The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
Integrated Authority File
–
GND screenshot
.jpg)
Media related to Melpomene at Wikimedia Commons
