Muse

Muse

The Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, moũsai: perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- "think") in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.

Read more about Muse:  Origins, Muses in Myth, Emblems of The Muses, The "tenth Muse"

Famous quotes containing the word muse:

    She went in there to muse on being rid
    Of relative beneath the coffin lid.
    No one was by. She stuck her tongue out; slid.
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    I have experienced such simple delight in the trivial matters of fishing and sporting, formerly, as might have inspired the muse of Homer or Shakespeare; and now, when I turn the pages and ponder the plates of the Angler’s Souvenir, I am fain to exclaim,—
    “Can such things be,
    And overcome us like a summer’s cloud?”
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy?
    She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy
    When I am happy I live and despise writing
    For my Muse this cannot but be dispiriting.
    Stevie Smith (1902–1971)