Thus, Calliope did not just inspire written words. Bards could more accurately recall words when they were set to a tune and the performance made the stories more memorable to the audience.

Playing music along with the stories helped to make them more memorable. Bards trained for years to memorize the poetic songs that both educated and entertained the people of the pre-literate Greek world. Their stories were recalled from memory and in their own time would have been performed as songs rather than recited as prose.įor hundreds, if not thousands, of years, the stories of the gods had been sung and set to music. Homer and Hesiod are credited to have been the first poets to write their epics down, but they were products of this tradition. Before the 8th century BC, all the mythology of the area was passed on through oral tradition. The Greek myths had been told for hundreds of years before they were written down. Calliope and her sisters were often called upon to ensure that poems and songs were not only written with inspiration, but also retold with accuracy. The Muses were often said to be the daughters of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Eurydice, however, had not yet stepped through the gate, so she was lost to him forever. The typically stoic Hades was so moved by the playing that he agreed to release Eurydice as long as Orpheus could lead her out of the Underworld without looking back at her.Īs Orpheus stepped through into the world of the living, he turned around to celebrate his victory. He was nearly successful, thanks to the power of his music. When his beloved wife Eurydice was killed on their wedding day, Orpheus traveled to the land of the dead in an attempt to bring her back. The most famous story of the musician was his descent into the Underworld. His music was so powerful that it could tame savage beasts, cause the rocks and trees to dance, and drown out the call of the Sirens. He was said to have been the greatest poet and musician to ever live. Orpheus, however, was Calliope’s most famous child. Their son Linus was said to have been the first writer to rework Phoenician letters into Greek. The king died with the children were quite young, however. The most famous story of Calliope regards her son, Orpheus.Ĭalliope married a human king, Oeagrus of Thrace, and had two sons. He would invite the Muse to speak through him, essentially making him a conduit for the goddess to speak directly to his readers.

Occasionally, the writer would ask for more than inspiration from Calliope. The poet would ask the Muse to inspire his words to be both beautiful and accurate.

It was customary for the writers of epic poetry to invoke Calliope at the beginning of a work. As such, she is one of the most frequently invoked goddesses in classical literature. Later, however, they became specialists and each was thought to influence a specific type of art, thought, or literature.Ĭalliope was the muse of epic poetry who gave inspiration to writers and singers. In early Greek mythology, the Muses worked as a group. These goddesses were sisters and served as the sources of inspiration and knowledge for artists, historians, philosophers, and writers. The Muse CalliopeĬalliope was one of the nine Muses, Mousai in Greek. By inspiring singing and being linked to the goddess of memory, Calliope could help bards remember thousands of lines of poetry long before the written word became common. The Muses existed not only to inspire greatness, but to aid in memory as well. Under the influence of his mother, the famous singer had the power to sway even Hades with his songs. Her name was invoked by writers from Homer to Ovid to inspire both beauty and accuracy in their words.Ĭalliope was also the mother of Greece’s most famous musician, Orpheus. They were primarily concerned with poetry and theatre, although over time their roles were expanded to include mathematics, astronomy, history, and dance.Īs the Muse of epic poetry, Calliope was arguably the most prominent. The Muses were the nine nymphs who were believed to inspire the artists of the Greek world to greatness.

Muse of poetry