Musæ, certain goddesses who presided over poetry, music, dancing, and all the liberal arts. They were daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, and were nine in number: Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Calliope, and Urania. Some suppose that there were in ancient times only three Muses, Melete, Mneme, and Aœde; others four, Telxiope, Aœde, Arche, Melete. They were, according to others, daughters of Pierus and Antiope, from which circumstance they are called Pierides. The name of Pierides might probably be derived from mount Pierus, where they were born. They have been severally called Castalides, Aganippides, Lebethrides, Aonides, Heliconiades, &c., from the places where they were worshipped, or over which they presided. Apollo, who was the patron and the conductor of the Muses, has received the name of Musagetes, or leader of the Muses. The same surname was also given to Hercules. The palm tree, the laurel, and all the fountains of Pindus, Helicon, Parnassus, &c., were sacred to the Muses. They were generally represented as young, beautiful, and modest virgins. They were fond of solitude, and commonly appeared in different attire, according to the arts and sciences over which they presided. See: [Clio], [Euterpe], [Thalia], [Melpomene], &c. Sometimes they were represented as dancing in a chorus, to intimate the near and indissoluble connection which exists between the liberal arts and sciences. The Muses sometimes appear with wings, because by the assistance of wings they freed themselves from the violence of Pyrenæus. Their contest with the daughters of Pierus is well known. See: [Pierides]. The worship of the Muses was universally established, particularly in the enlightened parts of Greece, Thessaly, and Italy. No sacrifices were ever offered to them, though no poet ever began a poem without a solemn invocation to the goddesses who presided over verse. There were festivals instituted in their honour in several parts of Greece, especially among the Thespians, every fifth year. The Macedonians observed also a festival in honour of Jupiter and the Muses. It had been instituted by king Archelaus, and it was celebrated with stage plays, games, and different exhibitions, which continued nine days, according to the number of the Muses. Plutarch, Amatorius.—Pollux.—Aeschines, Against Timarchus.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 21.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Virgil, Æneid.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 310.—Homer, Hymn 25 to the Muses and Apollo.—Juvenal, satire 7.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 14.
Musæus, an ancient Greek poet, supposed to have been son or disciple of Linus or Orpheus, and to have lived about 1410 years before the christian era. Virgil has paid great honour to his memory by placing him in the Elysian fields attended by a great multitude, and taller by the head than his followers. None of the poet’s compositions are extant. The elegant poem of the loves of Leander and Hero was written by a Musæus, who flourished in the fourth century, according to the more received opinions. Among the good editions of Musæus two may be selected as the best; that of Rover, 8vo, Leiden, 1727, and that of Schroder, 8vo, Leovard, 1743. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 677.—Diogenes Laërtius.——A Latin poet, whose compositions were very obscene. Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 96.——A poet of Thebes who lived during the Trojan war.
Musonius Rufus, a stoic philosopher of Etruria in the reign of Vespasian. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 3, ch. 81.
Mustēla, a man greatly esteemed by Cicero. Letters to Atticus, bk. 12.——A gladiator. Cicero.
[♦]Muta, a goddess who presided over silence, among the Romans. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 2, li. 580.
[♦] corrected alphabetic order.
Muthullus, a river of Numidia. Sallust, Jugurthine War, ch. 48.
Mutia, a daughter of Quintus Mutius Scævola, and sister of Metellus Celer. She was Pompey’s third wife. Her incontinent behaviour so disgusted her husband, that at his return from the Mithridatic war, he divorced her, though she had borne him three children. She afterwards married Marcus Scaurus. Augustus greatly esteemed her. Plutarch, Pompey.——A wife of Julius Cæsar, beloved by Clodius the tribune. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ch. 50.——The mother of Augustus.
Mutia lex, the same as that which was enacted by Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Mutius, A.U.C. 657. See: [Licinia lex].
Mutica, or Mutyce, a town of Sicily west of the cape Pachynus. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 43.