am sure you have heard of the Muses. Romano, a pupil of Raphael's, has left us this beautiful picture of them dancing with Apollo, their cousin. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus (Jove or Jupiter), and Memory. These lovely girls also come to every home to help care for the new baby. The Greek names of the Muses are rather hard to pronounce, but you will want to call them by name. Then, too, each girl's name in Greek letters is just below where she dances. Now begin at the left of the circle. The first one, Calliope, stands for narrative poetry; No. 2, Clio, is history; No. 3, Erato, is love-poetry; No. 4, Melpomene, is tragedy; No. 5, Terpsichore, is dance and song. Now comes Apollo with his quiver full of arrows. He is the god of the hunt and twin brother to Diana, the goddess of hunt; also he is god of music and poetry. No. 6 is Polyhymnia, muse of hymn-music; No. 7, Euterpe, is song poetry; No. 8, Thalia, is comedy, and No. 9, Urania, muse of astronomy. Athene gave the Muses the winged horse, Pegasus. But alack and alas! one of the poets became very poor and sold Pegasus to a farmer. He was fastened to the plow, but he could not plow through the hard earth. His spirit was broken and his body was weak. The angry farmer tried to make him work, but how could he when he had no courage? But just then a beautiful youth came and asked the farmer to let him try the horse. Of course the man was glad to have any one help get the plowing done. The young man petted the horse and slyly unfastened the harness as he patted him. He mounted upon his back and Pegasus rose in the air, and away they both went, Pegasus and Mercury. The farmer looked on with amazement. How could a good-for-nothing horse that could not plow do such a wonderful thing as fly? Please click on the image for a larger image. Please click here for a modern color image |