DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69192#0091
[ 3* J
The Acti a n Apo llo was much cele-
brated, especially in the Augustan age, as hav-
ing
Thalia was the muse of comedy and pastorals (Virg. ecl. vi.
v. 2.) and is distinguiihed by her comic mafic in her hand, and h®r
p ast or al crook.
Terpsichore has nothing to jdistinguifli her. Ausonius
gives her the Cithara. On the medals of the Pomponian family,
three muses have stringed instruments in their hands, but we do not
know them from one another 5 and are used to call the Cithara,
Barbiton, and Testudo, by the name of Lyres. These three muses
are in the relievo, the third (which the author calls Terpsichore)
and the fifth and seventh, which appear to be Erato and Polyhym-
nia j though that cannot be determined, till the namps and ihape
of the stringed instruments come to be better known.
Euterpe presided over the music played on two pipes
at once, as in the remarks before Terence’s plays. By these pipes
she is distinguiflied, though sometimes she holds the fistula, or ca-
lami, in her hands, and is so described by Ausonius, Hor. i. od. 1.
33«
Erato, who presided over the amorous kinds of poetry, is
genteelly dressed, looks pretty, though thoughtful. She is re-
presented pensive, or else full of gaiety, as ihe appears on gems ;
both which characters, though opposite, suit well with lovers, and,
consequently, with their patroness. Ovid invokes her with much
propriety in his Art of Love (1. ii. v. 16.) ; and in his Fasti sor
April, the lover’s month among the Romans, he calls it the month
of Erato, Fast. i. v. 1. 16.246.349. 14. 196. But Virgil seems
to invoke her improperly before a scene of battles, unless it was be-
cause the war was caused by a woman, /Tn. vii. v. 45.
Calliope is called by Ovid (Met. v. v. 340.) the chief
of the muses ; and by Horace, Regipa, as Ikilful on all instru-
ments, 1. iii. od.4. v. 4. The tables in her hand mark her dis-
tinguissiing character, which was to note down the worthy actions
of the living. The books of old were like the rollsftn the offices
for old records 5 and the form we now use for books, was then
only
The Acti a n Apo llo was much cele-
brated, especially in the Augustan age, as hav-
ing
Thalia was the muse of comedy and pastorals (Virg. ecl. vi.
v. 2.) and is distinguiihed by her comic mafic in her hand, and h®r
p ast or al crook.
Terpsichore has nothing to jdistinguifli her. Ausonius
gives her the Cithara. On the medals of the Pomponian family,
three muses have stringed instruments in their hands, but we do not
know them from one another 5 and are used to call the Cithara,
Barbiton, and Testudo, by the name of Lyres. These three muses
are in the relievo, the third (which the author calls Terpsichore)
and the fifth and seventh, which appear to be Erato and Polyhym-
nia j though that cannot be determined, till the namps and ihape
of the stringed instruments come to be better known.
Euterpe presided over the music played on two pipes
at once, as in the remarks before Terence’s plays. By these pipes
she is distinguiflied, though sometimes she holds the fistula, or ca-
lami, in her hands, and is so described by Ausonius, Hor. i. od. 1.
33«
Erato, who presided over the amorous kinds of poetry, is
genteelly dressed, looks pretty, though thoughtful. She is re-
presented pensive, or else full of gaiety, as ihe appears on gems ;
both which characters, though opposite, suit well with lovers, and,
consequently, with their patroness. Ovid invokes her with much
propriety in his Art of Love (1. ii. v. 16.) ; and in his Fasti sor
April, the lover’s month among the Romans, he calls it the month
of Erato, Fast. i. v. 1. 16.246.349. 14. 196. But Virgil seems
to invoke her improperly before a scene of battles, unless it was be-
cause the war was caused by a woman, /Tn. vii. v. 45.
Calliope is called by Ovid (Met. v. v. 340.) the chief
of the muses ; and by Horace, Regipa, as Ikilful on all instru-
ments, 1. iii. od.4. v. 4. The tables in her hand mark her dis-
tinguissiing character, which was to note down the worthy actions
of the living. The books of old were like the rollsftn the offices
for old records 5 and the form we now use for books, was then
only