This painting, by the French artist Camille Corot (aka Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, c. 1796–1875), envisions the Muse of History, Clio—whose name can also spelled Cleio or Kleio. Ironically, the history of the Muse of History is complicated, as the earliest Greek mythology accounts of the Muses were vague. Undoubtedly, they were always patron goddesses of arts, sciences and creativity, but there was significant debate, even among the ancients, over important details about the Muses, such as how many they numbered, the names they possessed, and the specific arts they gave their patronage.
Generally, the Muses were designated as daughters of the high-god, Zeus, and the goddess, Mnemosyne (Memory). Other origin stories did exist, such as a suggestion that their parents were actually the primordial earth goddess, Gaia (or Gē), and the heavenly entity, Ouranos—but, again, this was a minority opinion. Hesiod (c. 8th century BCE), the famed poet, is thought to have been the first person to provide the canonical names of the Muses. He wrote, “the Muses sang, who dwell in Olympus, the nine daughters born of great Zeus, Clio and Euterpe and Thaleia and Melpomene, Terpsichore and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania, and Calliope, who is chief among them all” (Hesiod, Theogony, approximately lines 76-79). These names stuck and were widely accepted in the Greco-Roman world. It took longer, however, for each Muse’s specific area of expertise to be specified.
Diodorus Siculus (c. 1st century BCE), a Greek scholar from Sicily, summarized ancient beliefs about the Muses and proposed an etymological theory as to how some of the goddesses became associated with their respective areas of expertise. He stated, “To each of the Muses men assign her special aptitude for one of the branches of the liberal arts, such as poetry, song, pantomimic dancing, the round dance with music, the study of the stars, and the other liberal arts…Cleio is so named because the praise which poets sing in their encomia bestows great glory (kleos) upon those who are praised” (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.7). Praise and glory can come from other literary and artistic mediums aside from history, but Clio eventually became inextricably linked the field of historical study, and ancient Roman writers left for posterity some of the clearest statements about Clio’s patronage over history. One such figure was the Roman poet, Valerius Flaccus (1st century CE), who wrote in his Argonautica about how “Clio…has been vouchsafed the power to know the hearts of the gods and the ways by which things come to be.” (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 3.15). Even more explicit was the fellow poet, Statius (1st century), in his Thebaid. He mused, “begin thou, unforgetting Clio, for the ages are in thy keeping, and all the storied annals of the past” (Statius, Thebaid, 10.630). It is this figure—Clio, the Muse of History—that Camille Corot brings to life in his painting.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
- The Library of History, by Diodorus Siculus, edited by Giles Laurén (Sophron Editor, 2014).
- Metamorphoses by Ovid. Translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics; Revised Edition, 2004.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, edited by Simon Price and Emily Kearns. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- https://www.theoi.com/Text/ValeriusFlaccus3.html
- https://www.theoi.com/Text/StatiusThebaid10.html
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435978
