In ancient Greek mythology, the daughters of the god Zeus and the Titanides Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory (according to another version - Harmony), the goddesses living on Parnassus are nine sisters born in Pieria and bearing the name "Olympic"; patroness of the sciences, poetry and arts. Mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Their names are: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Thalia, Polyhymnia and Urania.
Hesiod names all nine muses, however, their spheres of influence were distributed only in the Roman era, when each of the muses became the patroness of a certain type of art or science: Calliope - epic poetry, Clio - history, Euterpe - music, Terpsichore - lyric poetry and dance, Erato - anthem, Melpomene - tragedy, Thalia - comedy, Polyhymnia - pantomime, Urania - astronomy. (However, the spheres of influence of the Muses have repeatedly varied.) Apollo was considered the patron of the Muses, as depicted in Raphael's painting "Parnassus".
Each muse had its own attribute - a symbolic object that speaks of which principle it is associated with. So, Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, was depicted with a waxed tablet and style - a writing stick. This muse evoked a sense of sacrifice in a person, encouraged him to overcome the fear of fate, inspired warriors to exploits. Clio is the muse of history, her attributes are a scroll of parchment or a tablet (a board with letters). Clio reminds of what a person can achieve, helps to find his destiny. Melpomene is the muse of tragedy, she has a tragic mask in her hands, and Thalia, the muse of comedy, has a comic one. Melpomene and Thalia personify the theater of life, life experience. Polyhymnia is the muse of sacred hymns, faith turned into music. Polyhymnia is modesty and prayer, an appeal to everything dear and sacred, its attribute is the lyre. Terpsichore, the muse of dance, reveals to people the harmony between the external and internal, soul and body. She was depicted either with a lyre or dancing. The muse of astronomy and the starry sky, Urania, holds the celestial sphere in her hands and personifies the principle of knowledge, the sacred craving for everything high and beautiful, for the sky and the stars. Euterpe's attribute is a flute, this is the muse of music, prompted by Nature herself, giving people purification. And, finally, Erato, the muse of love and love lyrics, has a lyre or plectrum in his hands. Erato is associated with the principle of Great Love, which gives wings.
According to Pausanias, the first who honored the Muses and made sacrifices to them on Helikon were not poets and singers, but the terrible giants of the Aload - Ot and Ephialtes. They introduced the cult of the Muses and gave them names, believing that there were only three Muses: Meleta ("experience"), Mnema ("memory") and Aoida ("song"). In the course of time, Pier (after whom the mountain was named) arrived from Macedonia, he established the number of the Muses (nine) and gave them names. The poet Mimnermus claimed that the older Muses are the daughters of Uranus and Gaia, while the younger ones are the daughters of Zeus.
The chthonic past of the Muses is also evidenced by the offspring that the Muses, being the daughters of the land of Gaia, gave birth to both Zeus and Apollo. From Zeus and Calliope, according to another version, from Thalia and Apollo, the Corybants were born. The children of the zoomorphic Zeus the kite and Thalia were Sicilian sticks. From the marriage of Melpomene and the river god Aheloy, sirens are born - mixanthropic monstrous creatures that attract travelers with their singing and devour them. Archaic muses were called "stormy", "violent" (from Greek thoyrides, same root as Latin furia), as Hesychius reports, that is, the Muses somehow approach the Erinyes.
The Muses were called nurses of Dionysus and companions of his wanderings, like maenads. Muses and maenads are sometimes placed in the same row (for example, King Lycurgus was punished by Dionysus for persecuting the muses and maenads). In the Helicon inscription, Terpsichore and Dionysus Bromius are compared, the gift of inspiration and ivy are inherent in it, the ability to charm and the flute is inherent in it. Orpheus, who established the mysteries of Dionysus, son of Calliope and Oeager (or Apollo). Singer Lin - the son of Calliope (or Urania) and Amfimar, the son of Poseidon, Stormy and ecstatic muses was headed by Dionysus Musaget - "driver of the muses". Dionysus Melpomenes was revered in Acharnae, he, like Apollo, led round dances. The Muses are cruel and severely punish anyone who dares to compete with them. They blinded and deprived of the gift of singing and playing the cithara of Famirid.
The Olympic muses of classical mythology are the daughters of Zeus, they live on Helikon, singing all the generations of the gods - Gaia, Krona, Oceanus, Night, Helios, Zeus himself and his offspring, that is, they connect the past and the present. They knew the past, present and future, it was believed that they had the gift of prediction. They are the patroness of singers and musicians, they pass on their gift to them. They instruct and console people, treat them generally benevolently and affectionately, endow them with a persuasive word, give people of art power over the human soul; sing the laws and praise the good morals of the gods. The classical muses are inseparable from the order and harmony of the Olympic world. At the same time, they do not tolerate competition. So, they deprived of sight and took away the gift of music from the kifared Tamiris, who dared to challenge them to a contest.
Just like the rest of the gods, the Muses had their own temples, which were called museyons. From this word came the modern designation of buildings where collections of works of art or other monuments of past times are exhibited for viewing.
From time immemorial, the most beautiful and brightest moments in life have been associated with the advent of the muse, moments of insight and inspiration, the emergence of something new, meeting a dream. Why is it said that meeting a muse can completely change the life of a muse? Why even now we often hear: “if there is inspiration”, “if the muse comes”? Who are these mysterious and beautiful strangers, nine sisters, dressed in snow-white clothes? Is it just a beautiful myth that has gone into the distant past?
The Muses (translated from Greek as “thinking”) are the daughters of Zeus “mightier thundering”, to whom all the deities of Olympus obey, all the main principles in the Universe, and Mnemosynes, the goddess of memory, the patroness of poetry, arts and sciences, personify everything that allows a person to remember about the important and genuine, about the Eternal
Music of comedy. It gives you the opportunity to look at yourself from the outside in order to finally laugh at your mistakes, because comedy is a school of life, and by playing our roles we can learn positive lessons that will gradually lead us from the theater to a hidden deep spiritual essence. Waist is an opportunity to know the price of comedy and smiles.
Comedy, which is patronized by Thalia, does not cause laughter and does not allow you to forget. It is not a way to escape responsibility and not even a way to have fun. Comedy is the School of Life, and all of us, without exception, playing our roles, should learn positive lessons from here, which will gradually lead us from a play for materialistic masks to a hidden deep spiritual essence that sets scenes in the theaters of life.
We must "look at ourselves from the outside" as a spectacle, in order, in the end, to laugh at our mistakes and regret our innumerable errors, so that then, little by little, ironic and squeamish grimaces of discontent will appear on our faces, which will be a sure sign that that we recognized ourselves in this representation. And then we will understand the price of comedy and smiles.
Music of comedy. It gives you the opportunity to look at yourself from the outside in order to eventually laugh at your mistakes, because comedy is a school of life, and by playing our roles we can learn positive lessons that will gradually lead us from the theater to a hidden deep spiritual essence. Waist is an opportunity to know the price of comedy and a smile.
Today I saw...
Today I saw Thalia, the Muse of Comedy... Her face was lit up with a barely perceptible smile, and for a moment it seemed to me that she was laughing at me, at all of us, at our life and our worries, so alien to the delicate mental warehouse of the Muse.
Completely torn up by everyday troubles, I tried to drive away the vision. I wanted to erase that graceful laughing image, because I decided that now is not the time for fun and comedy, but for sorrows and dramas. But my desire soon disappeared, since the Muse, among her other gifts, had the power of suggestion. Then I looked at her and realized that if we "do not dramatize" the events, our own existence will become like a comedy, because everything that happens will be seen by us "from the outside" and, in the end, will cause in us an ironic smile of compassion for everything what we have to deal with every day.
I remembered my childhood, when it seemed to me that from morning to evening I should play the role of a good heroine and follow my words and deeds, because they are all seen in an exaggerated form from the stage on which I play. I believed that this whole performance would one day come to an end when the long-awaited curtain fell, and I, behind the heavy backstage, would also be able to close my eyes and fall asleep "for real", and not on stage. Yes, life is a great comedy. And we cannot even boast that we freely choose our roles and can change them. A cursory, unbiased look at History convinces us that most of its most important events took place with a good deal of inexorability. As if everything that happens on the historical stage is controlled by invisible threads, which, willingly or in spite of it, move the action towards the climax. At the time of my Muse, these threads were called "Fate", and the initiates struggled a lot to understand the mechanism of their action...
Yes, life is a comedy. And we all, like Thalia, have a grotesque mask that neither laughs nor cries, but depending on how we look at it, depicts either joy or sadness. We all hide behind this mask, and instead of expressing our state of mind, it carefully hides it so that no one - and not even ourselves - can know what is really happening to us inside. We all put on a great show, trying to atone for our good knowledge of roles and memorization of postures for our lack of inner self-confidence and maturity, which we have never been able to achieve.
But comedy, which is patronized by Thalia, does not cause laughter and does not allow you to forget. It is not a way to escape responsibility and not even a way to have fun. Comedy is the School of Life, and all of us, without exception, playing our roles, should learn positive lessons from here, which will gradually lead us from a play for materialistic masks to a hidden deep spiritual essence that sets scenes in the theaters of life.
We must "look at ourselves from the outside" as a spectacle, in order to finally laugh at our mistakes and regret our innumerable errors, so that then, little by little, ironic and squeamish grimaces of discontent begin to appear on our faces, which will be a sure sign that we recognized themselves in this presentation. And then we will understand the price of comedy and smiles. Then we will learn that both on the stage and in the auditorium, first of all, you need to be good actors and good spectators, good people who are aware of their real situation and are ready to improve it, giving all the best to acting on the stage that we are endowed with. Thalia instructs us with a laugh... She has a mask in her hand... She managed to take it off and show us her true face in all its harmonious beauty. She has left the theater and invites us to do the same, following her down the steep paths of inner self-improvement with a sad smile on her face and tears of joy in her eyes.
Very often in our life there are such phrases as: “the muse visited”, “the muse of poetry” and many others in which the word muse is mentioned. However, what does it mean? This concept comes from ancient mythology. The Greek Muses are the nine sisters, patrons of the arts and sciences. They are the daughters of Zeus himself and each of them has their own unique divine powers. Let's look at them in more detail.
So, as mentioned earlier, the Muses are the daughters of Zeus and the Titanides Mnemosyne, who is the goddess of memory. The very word muses (muses) comes from the Greek word for “thinking”. The Muses were usually portrayed as young and beautiful women. They possessed a prophetic gift and favorably treated creative people: poets, artists, artists, encouraging and helping them in their activities in every possible way. However, for special offenses, the muses could deprive a person of inspiration. To prevent this from happening, the ancient Greeks built special temples in honor of the muses, which were called museions. It is from this word that the word “museum” comes from. The patron of the Muses themselves was the god Apollo. Let's now look at each of the muses in more detail.
Muse Calliope - muse of epic poetry
The name of this muse from Greek can be translated as "having a beautiful voice." According to Diodorus, this name arose at the moment when the “beautiful word” (kalen opa) was uttered. She is the eldest daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne.
Calliope is the mother of Orpheus, the muse of heroic poetry and eloquence. It evokes a sense of sacrifice that encourages a person to overcome his selfishness and fear of fate. Calliope wears a golden crown on her forehead - a sign that she dominates other muses, thanks to her ability to introduce a person to the first steps towards his liberation. Calliope was depicted with a waxed tablet or scroll and a slate stick in her hands - a stylus, which was a bronze rod, the pointed end of which was used to write text on a tablet covered with wax. The opposite end was made flat to erase what was written.
Muse Clio - patroness of history
The accompanying attributes of this muse are a scroll of parchment or a tablet - a board with letters. Clio reminds of what a person can achieve, helps to find his destiny.
According to Diodorus, the name comes from the word "Cleos" - "glory". The etymology of the name is “giving glory”. From Pier, the Greek muse Clio had a son, Hyacinthus. Love for Pier was inspired by Aphrodite for condemning her love for Adonis.
Muse of Melpomene - muse of tragedy
In Greek mythology, Melpomene is considered the muse of the tragic genre. The name, according to Diodorus, means "a melody that pleases the listeners." The image is anthropomorphic - it was described as a woman with a bandage, grape or ivy wreath on her head. It always has permanent paraphernalia in the form of a tragic mask, sword or club. The weapon carries the symbolism of the inevitability of divine punishment.
Melpomene is the mother of sirens - sea creatures who personified a deceptive but charming sea surface, under which sharp cliffs or shallows are hidden. From their mother muse, the sirens inherited the divine voice with which they lured sailors.
Muse Thalia - muse of comedy
Thalia or, in another version, Phalia - in Greek mythology, the muse of comedy and light poetry, the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Depicted with a comic mask in her hands and a wreath of ivy on her head.
From Thalia and Apollo were born Corybantes - the mythical predecessors of the priests of Cybele or Rhea in Phrygia, in wild enthusiasm, with music and dances, serving the great mother of the gods. According to Diodorus, she received her name from prosperity (thallein) glorified in poetic works for many years.
Zeus, turning into a kite, took Thalia as his wife. Out of fear of Hera's jealousy, the muse hid in the bowels of the earth, where demonic creatures were born from her - sticks (in this myth she is called the nymph of Etna).
Muse Polyhymnia - muse of solemn hymns
Polyhymnia is the muse of solemn hymns in Greek mythology. According to Diodorus, she got her name from the creation by many praises (diapolles chimneseos) of fame to those whose name poetry immortalized with glory. She patronizes hymn-writers. It is believed that she keeps in memory all the hymns, songs and ritual dances that praise the Olympian gods, it is also believed that she invented the lyre.
Polyhymnia is often depicted with a scroll in her hands, in a thoughtful pose. Polyhymnia patronizes the study of rhetoric and oratory by people, which turns the orator into an instrument of truth. She personifies the power of speech and makes a person's speech life-giving. Polyhymnia helps to recognize the mystery of the word as a real power, with which you can inspire and revive, but at the same time hurt and kill. This power of speech is inspiring on the path to truth.
Muse Terpsichore - muse of dance
Terpsichore is the muse of dance. According to Diodorus, she got her name from the enjoyment (terpein) of the audience by the benefits that are in art. Tsets also calls her name among the Muses. Considered the patroness of dancing and choral singing. Depicted as a young woman, with a smile on her face, sometimes in the pose of a dancer, more often sitting and playing the lyre.
Characteristic attributes: a wreath on the head; in one hand she held a lyre, and in the other a plectrum. This muse is associated with Dionysus, attributing to her the attribute of this god - ivy (as stated in the inscription on Helicon dedicated to Terpsichore).
Muse Urania - muse of astronomy
Urania is the muse of astronomy. The attributes of Urania were: a celestial globe and a compass. According to Diodorus, she received her name from the aspiration to heaven (ouranos) of those who comprehended her art. According to one version, Urania is the mother of Hymen.
Urania personifies the power of contemplation, she calls us to leave the external chaos in which a person exists and plunge into the contemplation of the majestic run of the stars, which is a reflection of fate. This is the power of knowledge, the power that draws to the mysterious, draws to the high and beautiful - to the Sky and the Stars.
Muse of Euterpe - muse of lyric poetry
Euterpe (ancient Greek Εὐτέρπη "cheerful") - in Greek mythology, one of the nine muses, the daughters of Zeus and the Titanides Mnemosyne, the muse of lyrical poetry and music. Depicted with a lyre or flute in her hands.
Mother of Res by the river god Strymon. According to the etymology of Diodora, she received her name from the enjoyment (terpein) of listeners who receive the benefits of education. Tsets also calls her name among the Muses.
Muse Erato - muse of love poetry
Erato is the muse of lyrical and love poetry. Her name is derived from the name of the god of love Eros. According to Diodorus, she received the name in honor of the ability to be “eperasta” (desired for love and passion).
She was born as a result of the union of Mnemosyne and Zeus. From Mala Erato gave birth to Cleophema. The attribute of the muse is cithara. This divine heroine of Greek mythology is often mentioned in the legends of the Hellenes.
In addition, Virgil and Apollonius of Rhodes resort to the symbolism associated with the image of the Greek muse Erato in their works. She knows how to breathe into the soul love for everything living with her art to transform everything into beauty, hidden beyond the physical.
According to Wikipedia
Music of comedy. It gives you the opportunity to look at yourself from the outside in order to eventually laugh at your mistakes, because comedy is a school of life, and by playing our roles we can learn positive lessons that will gradually lead us from the theater to a hidden deep spiritual essence. Waist is an opportunity to know the price of comedy and a smile.
Today I saw...
Today I saw Thalia, the Muse of Comedy... Her face was lit up with a barely perceptible smile, and for a moment it seemed to me that she was laughing at me, at all of us, at our life and our worries, so alien to the delicate mental warehouse of the Muse.
Completely torn up by everyday troubles, I tried to drive away the vision. I wanted to erase that graceful laughing image, because I decided that now is not the time for fun and comedy, but for sorrows and dramas. But my desire soon disappeared, since the Muse, among her other gifts, had the power of suggestion. Then I looked at her and realized that if we "do not dramatize" the events, our own existence will become like a comedy, because everything that happens will be seen by us "from the outside" and, in the end, will cause in us an ironic smile of compassion for everything what we have to deal with every day.
I remembered my childhood, when it seemed to me that from morning to evening I should play the role of a good heroine and follow my words and deeds, because they are all seen in an exaggerated form from the stage on which I play. I believed that this whole performance would one day come to an end when the long-awaited curtain fell, and I, behind the heavy backstage, would also be able to close my eyes and fall asleep "for real", and not on stage. Yes, life is a great comedy. And we cannot even boast that we freely choose our roles and can change them. A cursory, unbiased look at History convinces us that most of its most important events took place with a good deal of inexorability. As if everything that happens on the historical stage is controlled by invisible threads, which, willingly or in spite of it, move the action towards the climax. At the time of my Muse, these threads were called "Fate", and the initiates struggled a lot to understand the mechanism of their action...
Yes, life is a comedy. And we all, like Thalia, have a grotesque mask that neither laughs nor cries, but depending on how we look at it, depicts either joy or sadness. We all hide behind this mask, and instead of expressing our state of mind, it carefully hides it so that no one - and not even ourselves - can know what is really happening to us inside. We all put on a great show, trying to atone for our good knowledge of roles and memorization of postures for our lack of inner self-confidence and maturity, which we have never been able to achieve.
But comedy, which is patronized by Thalia, does not cause laughter and does not allow you to forget. It is not a way to escape responsibility and not even a way to have fun. Comedy is the School of Life, and all of us, without exception, playing our roles, should learn positive lessons from here, which will gradually lead us from a play for materialistic masks to a hidden deep spiritual essence that sets scenes in the theaters of life.
We must "look at ourselves from the outside" as a spectacle, in order to finally laugh at our mistakes and regret our innumerable errors, so that then, little by little, ironic and squeamish grimaces of discontent begin to appear on our faces, which will be a sure sign that we recognized themselves in this presentation. And then we will understand the price of comedy and smiles. Then we will learn that both on the stage and in the auditorium, first of all, you need to be good actors and good spectators, good people who are aware of their real situation and are ready to improve it, giving all the best to acting on the stage that we are endowed with. Thalia instructs us with a laugh... She has a mask in her hand... She managed to take it off and show us her true face in all its harmonious beauty. She has left the theater and invites us to do the same, following her down the steep paths of inner self-improvement with a sad smile on her face and tears of joy in her eyes.
