The Muses of the Greek Mythology Essay

The Muses are the Greek goddesses who preside over the artsand sciences and inspire those who excel at these pursuits. Daughtersof Zeus and Mnemosyne ("memory"), they were born in Pieria on thefoot of Mount Olympus. Their nurse, Eupheme, raised them along with her son, Crotus the hunter , who was transported into the sky asSagittarius upon his death. Their name denotes 'memory' or 'a reminder', since in earlier times poets having no books to read from,relied on their memories. The original number of muses and their names vary. At first, three muses were worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia Melete ("meditation"), Mneme ("memory"), and Aoede ("song"). Another three were worshipped at Delphi and their names represented the names of the strings of a lyre Nete, Mese, and Hypate. The Greeks believed there were nine muses, each providing over some form of literature, art, or science. There was Calliope, as well as Clio the muses of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of choral dance and song, Erato of love poetry, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy, and Thalia of comedy (Encyclopedia Mythica). The Muses had several titles which usually referred to places where they had settled. Ephialtes and Otus, who also founded Ascra, were the first to sacrifice on Helicon to the Muses and to call the mountain sacred to the Muses. Sacrifices to the Muses consisted of gifts of water, milk, or honey. Their companions are the Charities, the Horae, Eros, Dionysus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Harmonia, and Himerus (Desire). Apollo is the leader of the choir of the Muses and consequently he has the surname Musagetes. Athena caught and tamed the winged horse Pegasus and gave him to the Muses. Some of their disciples included the Sphinx who learned her riddle from the Muses, Aristaeus, who learned the arts of healing and prophecy from them, and Echo, who was taught by them to play music. In Plato's Phaedrus...