#84: The Muses

 

Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, with volumes of Homer and Virgil

This month nine statues will return to the roof of Oxford University’s Clarendon Building, formerly a classical gateway to the city’s centre of learning, now Bodleian Library offices. These statues are the Muses, each devoted to providing inspiration for students or practitioners of these disciplines:

Calliope – Epic Poetry

Clio – History

Erato – Love Poetry

Euterpe – Music

Melpomene – Tragedy

Polyhymnia – Rhetoric

Terpsichore – Dance

Thalia – Comedy

Urania – Astronomy

These lead statues were originally erected on the roof in 1717 but subsequently fell off, disappeared, or keeled over. Calliope, for example, lasted only 38 years before disappearing, ‘likely melted down’, says the University. Only Thalia remains in place, despite a 1935 fall which left her ‘a shapeless mass of lead’, after which she was restored.

The statues have now been recreated and three of them recently spent some time in the foyer of the Bodleian’s Weston Library as part of The Muddle of the Muses exhibition. This was one of a series of small exhibitions using just one display case which I’ve been increasingly impressed by over the past few years (another was The Dancing Master, reviewed here).

Also in the exhibition were photos of the 3D printing process which made them anew, a contemporary engraving of the Clarendon building and, fittingly, a mention of Christopher Nolan’s 2026 film Odyssey and a graphic adaptation of the story released in 2010, two things which could have been inspired by Calliope.

So a good mix of contemporary documents from around the time they were erected, photos of the reproduction process, works they inspired, and not least three of the recreated ladies themselves.

Polyhymnia packed up and ready to go

Who would modern Muses be?

The Muses’ subjects, however, have long been superseded and are no longer central to learning. Rhetoric, for example, is more likely to be used as a derogatory term than studied as a subject. I wondered what modern Muses would be? I suggest these three:

Method

Central to all subjects. How will you investigate this research question? Deduction or induction? Quantitative or qualitative research?

Theory

What are you trying to prove/disprove? Whose ideas guide your thoughts?

Statistics

How common is this phenomenon? How significant is its occurrence in your sample?

Interestingly, these are all ‘how’ Muses, while the originals were ‘what’. They place more emphasis on the student’s own enquiry rather than on learning content from the Ancients.

I look forward to seeing the resurrected Muses.

The Muddle of the Muses was at the Weston Library earlier this year.

Ready to leave