Fiamma
March 22nd, 2007, 08:24 PM
Many folks are at least somewhat familiar with the Muses, the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus from Greek mythology, goddesses of song and dance, artistry and inspiration. Most don't know that there are two other groups of three Muses (I just learned this as I was looking this up myself!
Much more is written about the nine Muses than is about either of the groupings of three. Here are some
THE MOUSAI were the goddesses (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Cat_Olympioi.html) of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets. They were also goddesses of knowledge, who remembered all things that had come to pass. Later the Mousai were assigned specific artistic spheres: Kalliope, epic poetry; Kleio, history; Ourania, astronomy; Thaleia, comedy; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, religious hymns; Erato, erotic poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; and Terpsikhore, choral song and dance.
There were two alternative sets of Muses: the three or four Mousai Titanides (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Titan/Mousai.html) and the three Mousai Apollonides (http://www.mysticwicks.com/MousaiApollonides.html).
In ancient Greek vase painting the Mousai were depicted as beautiful young women with a variety of musical intruments. In later art each of the nine was assigned her own distinct attribute.
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Mousai.html
THE MOUSAI TITANIDES were three or four elder Muses, the Titan (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Cat_Titanes.html) goddesses of music. They were named Melete (Practise), Aiode (Song), and Mneme (Memory). The last of these was surely identified with the Titanis Mnemosyne (http://www.mysticwicks.com/TitanisMnemosyne.html) (also Memory), mother of the nine celebrated Olympian Muses (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Ouranios/Mousai.html) by Zeus.
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Mousai.html
THE MOUSAI APOLLONIDES were three younger Muses, daughters of the god Apollon, named Kephiso, Apollonis and Borysthenis, or Nete, Mese, Hypate. The latter represented the lowest, middle and highest notes of the lyre. They were honoured at the shrine of Delphoi.
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaiApollonides.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses (cites 50 muses, but doesn't mention anything more than that regarding number)
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/muses.html
By the way, sorry to have been amiss this last week. I've been training for my new position at work, which has taken away from my internet time (My previous position involved a lot of downtime and hurry up and wait, so I would sit around surfing the net, playing in forums for half an hour or more at a time. My new job will be much the same...moreso really since I'll be working overnight once I finish training.)
Much more is written about the nine Muses than is about either of the groupings of three. Here are some
THE MOUSAI were the goddesses (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Cat_Olympioi.html) of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets. They were also goddesses of knowledge, who remembered all things that had come to pass. Later the Mousai were assigned specific artistic spheres: Kalliope, epic poetry; Kleio, history; Ourania, astronomy; Thaleia, comedy; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, religious hymns; Erato, erotic poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; and Terpsikhore, choral song and dance.
There were two alternative sets of Muses: the three or four Mousai Titanides (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Titan/Mousai.html) and the three Mousai Apollonides (http://www.mysticwicks.com/MousaiApollonides.html).
In ancient Greek vase painting the Mousai were depicted as beautiful young women with a variety of musical intruments. In later art each of the nine was assigned her own distinct attribute.
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Mousai.html
THE MOUSAI TITANIDES were three or four elder Muses, the Titan (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Cat_Titanes.html) goddesses of music. They were named Melete (Practise), Aiode (Song), and Mneme (Memory). The last of these was surely identified with the Titanis Mnemosyne (http://www.mysticwicks.com/TitanisMnemosyne.html) (also Memory), mother of the nine celebrated Olympian Muses (http://www.mysticwicks.com/../Ouranios/Mousai.html) by Zeus.
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Mousai.html
THE MOUSAI APOLLONIDES were three younger Muses, daughters of the god Apollon, named Kephiso, Apollonis and Borysthenis, or Nete, Mese, Hypate. The latter represented the lowest, middle and highest notes of the lyre. They were honoured at the shrine of Delphoi.
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaiApollonides.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses (cites 50 muses, but doesn't mention anything more than that regarding number)
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/muses.html
By the way, sorry to have been amiss this last week. I've been training for my new position at work, which has taken away from my internet time (My previous position involved a lot of downtime and hurry up and wait, so I would sit around surfing the net, playing in forums for half an hour or more at a time. My new job will be much the same...moreso really since I'll be working overnight once I finish training.)