Calliope decided that Aphrodite and Persephone would spend equal parts of the year with Adonis, with Aphrodite in the celestial realm and Persephone in the underworld. Zeus employed the help of Calliope to judge who would get to keep Adonis. Photo by Mary Harrsch, Flickr, Louvre Museum, Creative Commons 17th century CE restoration of an ancient marble torso. Persephone opened the box and witnessed Adonis’ beauty for herself, refusing to give the box back to Aphrodite.Ī marble statue of Adonis. To escape her father’s wrath, the gods transformed her into a myrrh tree, and the tree split open ten months later to reveal Adonis.Īdonis’ beauty was legendary and did not escape the attention of Aphrodite, who stole him and hid him away in a chest that she entrusted to Persephone. Adonis was born out of a tree after his mother, Smyrna, tricked her father into an incestuous relationship (helped by the influence of Aphrodite) and fell pregnant. In some traditions, Calliope was the mediator for a conflict that took place between Adonis, Aphrodite and Persephone. Some sources state that Calliope is also the mother of Rhesus, a king of Thrace, with the river god Strymon, and that she bore the Korybantes (worshippers of Cybele) with her father, Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Orpheus calls to his mother in song: “Let Jove be the start of my song, Callíope – Muse and mother!” (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.148)Ĭalliope and Apollo, or King Oeagrus, were also said to be the parents of Linus, another great musician in Greek mythology and an eloquent public speaker. However, in some traditions, his father is listed as the mortal King Oeagrus of Thrace. He was said to have received his gift of music from his father, Apollo. Calliope’s ChildrenĬalliope was the mother of Orpheus, the most famed musician in all of Greek mythology. She also determined the standards by which epic poetry was judged and was regularly called on for help when poets were writing their work.Ĭalliope was often represented in art as a seated or standing figure, holding a writing tablet and a stylus, as if she were getting ready to write the next great epic poem. As a Muse of epic poetry, she inspired the great epic poets throughout history, including Homer, Virgil (70-19 BCE), Ovid (43 BCE to 17 CE) and Dante Alighieri (1265-1321 CE). She began as a Muse of poetry, which later developed into epic poetry (tales of the legendary adventures of a people, its myth, and heroes). Photo courtesy Musée d’Orsay, Wikimedia CommonsĬalliope (‘beautiful voiced’) was widely considered the leader of the Muses and was the greatest and wisest of them. Hesiod and the Muse,1891,oil on canvas by Gustave Moreau.

On Mount Helicon, they were said to dance around the sacred fountain of Hippocrene and the altar of Zeus. As a group, they were called the Heliconiades and the Olympiades in reference to the various places they frequented, including Mount Olympus and Mount Helicon in Boeotia.Īccording to Homer, the Muses lived on Mount Olympus, where they entertained the Olympian gods with their singing and inspired the poets. Over time, each of the nine Muses came to represent a specific art form. They held a distinguished position in Greek mythology and were honoured by both mortals and immortals alike. Apollo, the Greek god of music and dance and a patron of the arts, was a leader of the Muses. The Muses were the patron goddesses of literature and the arts and inspired all artistic activity in the ancient world. 700 BCE), Calliope is the most important Muse. She is one of the nine canonical Muses, with the others being Clio (history), Euterpe (flute-playing), Thalia (comedy), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dancing), Erato (lyric and love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred song) and Urania (astronomy). Birth and FamilyĬalliope is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (goddess of memory). His great talent for epic poetry meant that he was also referred to as Calliope’s son (in a symbolic sense). 750 BCE) was said to be directly inspired by Calliope to write the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of the most famous epic poems of all time. She is often represented in art with a tablet on her knee and a stylus in her hand. She is considered the leader of the Muses and the most honoured of them all. Photo courtesy Vatican Museums, World History Encyclopedia, Creative CommonsĪccording to Hesiod, writing around 700 BCE, Calliope was the most important Muse.Ĭalliope (also spelt Kalliope) is the Muse of epic poetry and heroic song in Greek mythology. The sculpture is a copy of a 2nd century BCE Hellenistic sculpture which was itself a copy of a 4th century BCE Greek original. A Roman 2nd century CE sculpture of Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry.

Euterpe greek muse of music