Muse
Marie-Laure de Noailles via http://www.jeancocteau.net/01poete/intro02.htm [Dec 2004]
Definition
A source of inspiration. --AHDFamous Muses
Kiki of Montparnasse, Model, Muse to Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Moise Kisling, Maurice Utrillo, Max Ernst and Pablo GargalloAlma Mahler
Muse to Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Oskar Kokoschka, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel
Lee Miller, Photographer, Muse to Man Ray
Marianne Faithfull, Musician, Rock Muse
Zelda Fitzgerald, Author, Muse to Scott Fitzgerald
George Sand, Novelist, the Muse of Adultery and Muse to Chopin and Alfred de Musset
Anais Nin, Author, Muse to Henry Miller
Amanda Lear, Singer, Muse to Salvador Dali
Cathérine Deneuve, Actress, Muse to Bunuel, André Téchiné and Yves Saint Laurent
Camille Claudel, Sculptor, Muse to Rodin
Alice B. Toklas, Author, Muse to Gertrude Stein and the Lesbian movement
Leonora Carrington, Artist, Muse to Max Ernst
Jeanne Hebuterne, Model and Painter, Muse to Modigliani
Loulou de la Falaise, Designer, Muse to Yves Saint Laurent
Dora Maar, Writer, Muse to Picasso
--headlobe via http://www.geocities.com/headlobe/muses.html [Jan 2005]
Cults of the Muses
When Pythagoras arrived at Croton, his first advice to the Crotoniates was to build a shrine of the Muses at the center of the city, to promote civic harmony and learning.
Local cults of the Muses were often associated with springs or fountains. They were sometimes called Aganippids because of their association with a fountain called Aganippe. Other fountains, called Hippocrene and Pirene were also important to the Muses. The Muses were also occasionally referred to as Corycides or Corycian nymphs after a cave on Mount Parnassos called the Corycian Cave.
The Muses were especially venerated in Boeotia, near Helicon, and in Delphi and the Parnassus, where Apollo became known as Mousagetes "Muse-leader".
Muse-worship was also often associated with the hero-cults of poets: the tombs of Archilochus on Thasos and Hesiod and Thamyris (whom they blinded) in Boeotia all played host to festivals in which poetic recitations were accompanied by sacrifices to the Muses.
The Library of Alexandria and its circle of scholars were formed around a mousaion ("museum" or shrine of the Muses) close by the tomb of Alexander the Great.
Many Enlightenment figures sought to re-establish a "Cult of the Muses" in the 18th century. A popular Masonic lodge in pre-Revolutionary Paris was called Neuf Seurs ("nine sisters", i.e. nine Muses), and was attended by Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. One side-effect of this movement was the use of the word "museum" (originally, "cult place of the Muses") to refer to a place for the public display of knowledge. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse#Cults_of_the_Muses [Dec 2004]
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