Hesiod

Lore & Background

Hesiod's Theogony (seventh century BC) records that the Muses were daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory. The number and names of the Muses differed by region, but from the Classical period the number was standardized to nine: Calliope, Clio, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, and Urania. Hesiod's account is generally followed by writers of antiquity. The earliest known records of the Muses come from Boeotia (Boeotian muses). Some ancient authorities regarded the Muses as of Thracian origin. In Thrace, a tradition of three original Muses persisted. According to Pausanias, writing 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'). In Delphi too three Muses were worshipped: Nete, Mese, and Hypate, assigned as the names of the three chords of the lyre. A later tradition recognized a set of four Muses: Thelxinoë, Aoide, Archē, and Melete, said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia or of Ouranos.

In Their Own Story

Hesiod's Theogony narrates that the Muses brought to people forgetfulness, that is, the forgetfulness of pain and the cessation of obligations. For Alcman and Mimnermus, they were even more primordial, springing from the early deities Uranus and Gaia. Pausanias records a tradition of two generations of Muses; the first are the daughters of Ouranos and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia (the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares), which contradicts the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus. Classical writers set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousēgetēs ('Apollo Muse-leader'). In one myth, the Muses judged a contest between Apollo and Marsyas. They also gathered the pieces of the dead body of Orpheus, son of Calliope, and buried them in Leibethra. The Muses had several temples and shrines in ancient Greece, their two main cult centres being Mount Helikon in Boiotia, which holds the Valley of the Muses, and Pieria in Macedonia.

Reader's Guide

Hesiod is a poet from ancient Greece, author of the Theogony (c. 700 BC). His work is the earliest known source that standardizes the Nine Muses as daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The Muses were considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs, and myths related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture. The number and names of the Muses differed by region, but from the Classical period the number was standardized to nine: Calliope, Clio, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, and Urania. According to Diodorus Siculus (first century BC), 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. The Muses had several temples and shrines in ancient Greece, their two main cult centres being Mount Helikon in Boiotia and Pieria in Macedonia.

Did You Know?

• Hesiod's Theogony (seventh century BC) records that the Muses were daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory.
• The number of Muses was standardized to nine from the Classical period, with names generally given as Calliope, Clio, Polyhymnia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Melpomene, Thalia, and Urania.
• According to Pausanias, there were originally three Muses worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Aoide, Melete, and Mneme.
• In Delphi, three Muses were worshipped with the names Nete, Mese, and Hypate, assigned as the names of the three chords of the lyre.
• The Muses' two main cult centres were Mount Helikon in Boiotia and Pieria in Macedonia.