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Muse plaque, Muse, Muses Sculpture, Muses Art, Goddess, Greek Mythology
In Greek mythology, the Muses are nine archaic
goddesses who embody the right evocation of myth,
inspired through remembered and improvised song and
traditional music and dances. They were water nymphs,
associated with the springs of Haliacmon and Pieria,
region of Macedonia. The Olympian system set Apollo as
their leader, Apollon Mousagetes. Muse-worship was
also often associated with the hero-cults of poets: the
tombs of Archilochus on Thasos and Hesiod and
Thamyris (whom they blinded) in Boeotia all played host
to festivals in which poetic recitations were accompanied
by sacrifices to the Muses. The Library of Alexandria and
its circle of scholars were formed around a mousaion
("museum" or shrine of the Muses) close by the tomb of
Alexander the Great. Many Enlightenment figures sought
to re-establish a "Cult of the Muses" in the 18th century. A
popular Masonic lodge in pre-Revolutionary Paris was
called Neuf Soeurs ("nine sisters", i.e. nine Muses), and
was attended by Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. One
side-effect of this movement was the use of the word
"museum" (originally, "cult place of the Muses") to refer to
a place for the public display of knowledge.
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