Editing Muses (section)

== Number and names ==
[[File:Hesiod and the Muse.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gustave Moreau]]: ''Hesiod and the Muse'' (1891)—[[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris|left]]
[[File:Johann Christoph Storer, Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus, c. 1650, NGA 127331.jpg|alt= Pen and brown ink sketch of Apollo and the Muses enjoying music|thumb|upright|''Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus'', c. 1650, by Johann Christoph Storer. Held at [[National Gallery of Art]]]]

The earliest known records of the Muses come from [[Boeotia]] (Boeotian muses). Some ancient authorities regarded the Muses as of [[Thracians|Thracian]] origin.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds2oBKF_FrUC|title= The Growth of Literature|publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 9781108016155|author= H. Munro Chadwick, Nora K. Chadwick|year= 2010}}</ref> In Thrace, a tradition of three original Muses persisted.<ref>At least, this was reported to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] in the second century AD. ''Cfr.'' Karl Kerényi: ''The Gods of the Greeks'', Thames & Hudson, London 1951, p. 104 and note 284.</ref>

In the first century BC, [[Diodorus Siculus]] cited [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]] to the contrary, observing:
{{blockquote|Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that there are three, and others that there are nine, but the number nine has prevailed since it rests upon the authority of the most distinguished men, such as Homer and Hesiod and others like them.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], 4.7.1–2 ([http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4A.html#7 on-line text])</ref>}}

Diodorus states (Book I.18) that [[Osiris]] first recruited the nine Muses, along with the [[satyr]]s, while passing through [[Aethiopia]], before embarking on a tour of all Asia and Europe, teaching the arts of cultivation wherever he went.

According to Hesiod's account ({{Circa|700 BC}}), generally followed by the writers of antiquity, the Nine Muses were the nine daughters of [[Zeus]] and [[Mnemosyne]] (i.e., "Memory" personified), figuring as personifications of knowledge and the arts, especially poetry, literature, dance and music.

The Roman scholar [[Varro]] (116–27 BC) relates that there are only three Muses: one born from the movement of water, another who makes sound by striking the air, and a third who is embodied only in the human voice. They were called [[Melete]] or "Practice", [[Mneme]] or "Memory" and [[Aoide]] or "Song".{{Citation needed|reason=There's no reference to where Varro says that.|date=June 2023}} The ''Quaestiones Convivales'' of [[Plutarch]] (46–120 AD) also report three ancient Muses (9.I4.2–4).<ref>See also the Italian article on [[:it:Plutarco|this writer]].</ref><ref>Susan Scheinberg, in reporting other Hellenic maiden triads in "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes", references Diodorus, Plutarch and Pausanias - ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', '''83''' (1979:1–28), p. 2.</ref>

However, the [[Classical antiquity|classical]] understanding of the Muses tripled their triad and established a set of nine goddesses, who embody the arts and inspire creation with their graces through remembered and [[improvised]] song and mime, writing, traditional music, and dance. It was not until [[Hellenistic]] times that the following systematic set of functions became associated with them, and even then some variation persisted both in their names and in their attributes:

[[File:Nine muses and mnemosyne symbols disc from elis greece.jpg|thumb|upright|Mosaic with symbols of each Muse and Mnemosyne, 1st century BC, Archaeological Museum of [[Ancient Elis]].]]

{{block indent|1=<nowiki />
* [[Calliope]] ([[epic poetry]])
* [[Clio]] (history)
* [[Polyhymnia]] ([[hymn]])
* [[Euterpe]] (flute)
* [[Terpsichore]] (light verse and dance)
* [[Erato]] (lyric choral poetry)
* [[Melpomene]] (tragedy)
* [[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]] (comedy)
* [[Urania]] (astronomy, astrology, and space)<ref>For this list of names and attributes, see Grimal, s.v. Muses.</ref>
}}

[[File:Muses sarcophagus Louvre MR880.jpg|thumb|The nine Muses on a Roman [[sarcophagus]] (second century AD)—[[Louvre]], Paris|270x270px]]
According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], who wrote in the later second century AD, there were originally three Muses, worshipped on [[Mount Helicon]] in [[Boeotia]]: [[Aoide]] ('song' or 'tune'), [[Melete]] ('practice' or 'occasion'), and [[Mneme]] ('memory').<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://topostext.org/work/213#9.29.1 9.29.1–9.29.2]</ref> Together, these three form the complete picture of the preconditions of poetic art in [[cult (religion)|cult practice]].

In [[Delphi]] too three Muses were worshipped, but with other names: [[Nete (mythology)|Nete]], [[Mese (mythology)|Mese]], and [[Hypate]], which are assigned as the names of the three chords of the ancient musical instrument, the [[lyre]].<ref>Plutarch Symposium 9.14</ref>

Alternatively, later they were called [[Cephisso]], [[Apollonis]], and [[Borysthenis]] - names which characterize them as daughters of [[Apollo]].<ref>[[Eumelus of Corinth|Eumelus]] fr. 35 as cited from [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] on [[Hesiod]], 23; Tzetzes on Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' 6</ref>

A later tradition recognized a set of four Muses: [[Thelxinoë]], [[Aoide]], [[Arche (mythology)|Archē]], and [[Melete]], said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia or of [[Uranus (mythology)|Ouranos]].<ref>[[Cicero]], ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/137#3.53 3.53], Epicharmis, ''Tzetzes on Hes''. 23</ref>
One of the people frequently associated with the Muses was [[Pierus]]. By some he was called the father (by a [[Pimpleia]]n nymph, called [[Antiope (Greek myth)|Antiope]] by [[Cicero]]) of a total of seven Muses, called {{Lang|grc-latn|Neilṓ|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Νειλώ}}), {{Lang|grc-latn|Tritṓnē|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Τριτώνη}}), {{Lang|grc-latn|Asōpṓ|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Ἀσωπώ}}), {{Lang|grc-latn|Heptápora|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Ἑπτάπορα}}), Achelōís, {{Lang|grc-latn|Tipoplṓ|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Τιποπλώ}}), and {{Lang|grc-latn|Rhodía|italic=no}} ({{Lang|grc|Ῥοδία}}).<ref>Epicharmis, ''Tzetzes on Hes''. 23</ref><ref>
[[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=musae-bio-1 "Musae" ].</ref>