To Thalia and Melpomene are given the realms of comic and tragic poetry.
Erato, who presides over the poems of love, generally accompanies the youngest and gayest of the Muses, Terpsichore. The chief pleasure and delight of Terpsichore is in the graceful movements of the dance. When Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry, strikes her golden lyre, these three, with their music, song, and dance, create exquisite beauty and harmony, and they are much beloved by their sister Muses and by mortals.
The wisest and most dignified of all the Muses is Polyhymnia, who presides over sacred music. She it is who inspires the hymns of praise to the Almighty Ruler of the world.
Apollo instructs these maidens in the arts of poetry and music, and then they unite in a merry dance; for they are graceful beings and have strong, beautiful bodies. The Greeks believed in the culture of the body,—the temple of the soul,—and so Apollo, god of the sun, of poetry and music, was also their ideal of physical perfection.
THE DESCENT OF THE MUSES.
Nine sisters, beautiful in form and face,
Came from their convent on the shining heights
Of Pierus, the mountain of delights,
To dwell among the people at its base.
Then seemed the world to change. All time and space,
Splendor of cloudless days and starry nights,
And men and manners, and all sounds and sights,
Had a new meaning, a diviner grace.
Proud were these sisters, but were not too proud
To teach in schools of little country towns
Science and song, and all the arts that please;
So that while housewives span, and farmers plowed,
Their comely daughters, clad in homespun gowns
Learned the sweet songs of the Pierides.
Giulio Romano (1492-1546).
Apollo and the Muses.