Muses

   In mythology, muses are the goddesses of art and science, and they provide inspiration to those who engage in the practice of these fields. The daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, their birth-place is Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus where the gods reside. They usually convene in Parnassus presided over by Apollo. Though their numbers have varied in the surviving ancient accounts, eventually nine of them came to be worshiped. They are Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. Muses often appear in art. In Giorgione's Fête Champêtre (c. 1510; Louvre, Paris) they provide the poets with inspiration. In the Stanza della Segnatura (1510-1511) at the Vatican, Raphael placed them in Parnassus, as did Nicolas Poussin in his Apollo and the Muses (1631-1632; Madrid, Prado). Simon Vouet painted the Muses Urania and Calliope (c. 1624; Washington, National Gallery), believed to have been part of a series that showed all nine muses along with Apollo, and Eustache Le Seur decorated the Cabinet of the Muses in the Hotel Lambert, Paris (1652-1655; now Paris, Louvre) with paintings showing the women in groups of three, each with her respective attribute.