THE MUSES 311 



the original meaning of the word as " a seat of the Muses," 

 for nearly all those mythical ladies were remarkable for 

 their special patronage of music, dancing, and song. 



Who were these goddesses, the Muses, and what were 

 their names? What was the speciality of each, and how do 

 they come to have to do with collections of works of art 

 and specimens of natural history ? Two learned " classi- 

 cal " friends whom I lately met in Paris could not help 

 me further than by giving me the names of the first three. 

 I was a little shocked, but the next evening discovered 

 that these goddesses are, in modern times, very generally 

 neglected and ignored. In an extremely amusing play, 

 called " Le Bois Sacre " — the Sacred Grove. (of the Muses) 

 — a name applied jocosely to the Ministry of Fine Arts — 

 I found that the minister of that department was repre- 

 sented as a pompous and fatuous person who completely 

 fails to call to mind, in the course of an eloquent 

 speech, the name of more than one Muse. On ringing 

 for his secretaries and airily asking them to refresh his 

 memory, he did not succeed in extracting from them 

 more than two doubtful additions to his list ! 



I am able, nevertheless (after due investigation), to put 

 my reader in possession of the facts so unfamiliar to the 

 modern oracles of classical mythology 1 Briefly, it appears 

 that in the best period of ancient Greece nine Muses were 

 recognised, namely, Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry ; 

 Euterpe, of lyric poetry ; Erato, of erotic poetry ; 

 Melpomen^, of tragedy ; Thalia, of comedy; Polyhymnia, 

 of sacred hymns ; Terpsichore, of choral song and dance ; 

 Clio, of history ; and Urania, of astronomy. The last two 

 seem to have very little in common with the addiction to 

 singing and dancing characteristic of the rest, and are the 

 only ones who can be imagined as feeling themselves at 

 home in a modern museum, excepting on those evenings 

 when the authorities use the museum (as is the custom in 



