![]() Her look asks, “Who among you shall we inspire?” And what are the worthy inspired to do? To speak on behalf of heaven’s truths with eloquence and beauty. To return to our question above, I think that this is why Urania looks out at us: She calls us to be worthy enough for the Muses’ inspiration. The ones the cherubs crown will be the ones the Muses inspire. And whom might they crown victorious? Whoever among us might be worthy of being inspired to praise the eloquence of heaven. Are the cherubs also sharing heaven by way of the laurel wreaths? I say yes.Īnd where are they carrying them? They are carrying them to our world to crown someone victorious. So far, we can presume that the other two figures share heaven by the things they touch. They carry laurel wreaths-symbols of victory-away from the two Muses. Might they represent the inspiration to create epic poetry, beautiful words, and sweet utterances? Thus, Urania shares heaven with Calliope, and Calliope shares heaven through poetry.Īnd what about the three cherubs? What might they represent? Though the cherubs are depicted behind Calliope, compositionally, they fly forth from the area where she holds the poem. What does Calliope touch? What does she share the heavens with? She touches Homer’s “Odyssey,” which suggests that the epic poem-literature-is a way by which the eloquence of heaven is shared. However, there may be more to consider about the hands of these figures.ĭoes Urania touch Calliope as a way of sharing the heavens with her? And does Calliope turn toward her to accept it? Perhaps Urania is like a conduit of heavenly things, and heaven moves from the globe she sits on to Calliope, whom she touches.Ĭalliope continues this heavenly transference. She is looking attentively at Urania, and Urania places her hand on Calliope’s shoulder as if to comfort her. What might she be waiting for us to do?īefore we answer that question, let’s look at Calliope. She looks over her shoulder at us, and her expression suggests that she’s silently waiting for us. Urania sits on the celestial globe, which could represent heaven supporting her. In his work “Phaedrus,” Plato describes Calliope and Urania as the Muses “who are chiefly concerned with heaven and thought, divine as well as human, and they have the sweetest utterance.”īased on the meanings of their names, when they are depicted together, they are the “beautiful-voiced heavenly one” who inspires music, poetry, dance, and knowledge about heaven. What meanings may we gather from this painting? Let’s first look at Calliope and Urania. The cherubs carry laurel wreaths toward the open landscape on the right side of the composition. To the right of the Muses are three cherubs wearing yellow, pink, and blue sashes. The two Muses sit in front of ancient architecture with fluted columns that rise above their heads and outside of the picture plane. A partial word, “odiss,” can be seen on the book, which may identify it as Homer’s epic poem “Odyssey.” Her body faces Calliope, but her idealized face looks back over her shoulder at us, the viewers.Ĭalliope, however, dressed in yellow and pink, looks attentively at Urania as Urania places her hand on Calliope’s shoulder. The 16th- to 17th-century French painter Simon Vouet painted a lovely depiction of these two Muses called “The Muses Urania and Calliope.”Īt the far left of the piece, he painted Urania, dressed in white and blue, and wearing a crown of stars as she sits on a celestial globe. ![]() Simon Vouet’s ‘The Muses Urania and Calliope’ In Greek, Urania means “heavenly one.” As her name implies, she was the Muse of astronomy and astronomical writings. The first of the nine Muses was Calliope, which in Greek means “beautiful voiced.” Calliope was the Muse of eloquence and epic poetry. We sometimes refer to our moments of inspiration as coming to us “in a flash.” We may also think, “Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” as if it was something we already knew. It’s interesting to note that it took the union of Zeus, often associated with the flash of lightning, and Mnemosyne, the mother of memory, to create the nine Muses as sources of inspiration. They inspired music, poetry, dance, and knowledge. The Muses were considered goddesses who brought inspiration. ![]() ![]() Who were the Greek Muses? Zeus, the thunderbolt-wielding king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, had nine daughters who were referred to as the nine Muses. ![]()
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