This page is part of the "tools" section of a site, Plato and his dialogues, dedicated to developing a new interpretation of Plato's dialogues. The "tools" section provides historical and geographical context (chronology, maps, entries on characters and locations) for Socrates, Plato and their time. By clicking on the minimap at the beginning of the entry, you can go to a full size map in which the city or location appears. For more information on the structure of entries and links available from them, read the notice at the beginning of the index of persons and locations.

City of Boeotia, west of Thebes (area 2).
Thespiæ was said to have been founded by Thespius, a son of Erechtheus, king of Athens. It is at the court of Thespius that Heracles undertook the first of his wondrous deeds (though not one of the 12 labors), the killing of the lion of Cithæron. Thespius had 50 daughters, the Thespiadæ, and wanted grand-children from Heracles. So, while the hunt lasted, each night, Thespius managed to have another one of his daughters sleeping with Heracles, who was so exhausted after he had run after the lion for a whole day that he didn't realize the change. The hunt lasted fifty days, and, as a result, each one of Thespius' daughters had a son from Heracles. Later, Heracles asked his companion Iolaus to take his children from the Thespiadæ along to Sardinia and to settle them there.
Thespiæ was also linked to one version of the story of Narcissus. In that version, Narcissus was an extremely beautiful young man from Thespiæ who despised the pleasures of love. He was loved by another young man of the neighborhood whom he kept turning down until one day, he offered the importunate lover a sword that the young man used to kill himself at Narcissus' front door, but not without cursing him before dying. And so it happened that, a little while later, Narcissus saw his reflection on the surface of a pond near a spring and fell in love with himself to the point that he too killed himself in despair. Where his blood fell on the grass, a flower grew that was called narcissus.. After that, the people of Thespiæ instituted a cult to Eros, the god of love, whose power had been so manifested.

Thespiæ was located next to Mount Helicon, the mountain of the Muses, where a temple was dedicated to them. The Muses were said to be daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (the Greek word for "memory"), herself the daughter of Uranus ("heaven" in Greek) and Gæa ("earth" in Greek), and were conceived during nine consecutive nights of love between them in Pieria, a region of Macedon close to Mount Olympus. Under the leadership of Apollo, whose temple at Delphi was not far away from Mount Helicon, they presided, not only over music in the usual sense, but over all activities of the mind. In the list that became classic over time, they were (their specific area of activity might change from one author to another) ;

• Calliope, first in dignity, whose name means in Greek "the beautiful voiced", muse of epic poetry, and usually mentioned as the mother of Orpheus (though some traditions mention another Muse, Polyhymnia or Clio) ;
• Clio, whose name means in Greek "I celebrate" or "I make famous", but might also mean "I set bounds", muse of history ;
• Polyhymnia, whose name means in Greek "she of the many hymns", muse of lyric poetry, mime, learning and rhetoric ;
• Euterpe, whose name means in Greek "she who gives plenty of happiness", muse of flute music ;
• Terpsichore, whose name means in Greek "she who enjoys dance/choir", muse of dance and choral singing ;
• Erato, whose name, built on the same root as "Eros", means in Greek "lovely", muse of lyric poetry ;
• Melpomene, whose name means in Greek "the songstress", muse of tragedy ;
• Thalia, whose name means in Greek "plentiful", muse of comedy and pastoral poetry ;
• Urania, whose name means in Greek "heavenly", muse of astronomy.

Plato mentions the Muses in several dialogues, and uses the term "mousikos", whose original meaning is "relating to the Muses", innumerable times to refer to the quality of being, not only "musical" in the sense of "good musician", but well educated and versed in things of the mind, a vocabulary that goes along very well with his view of justice as an "harmony" of the soul with itself and with other souls. His program of education balances "gymnastics" for the body, and "music (mousikè)" for the soul, both taken in a broad sense, especially "music", which encompasses all that relates to the mind (see eg :Republic, II, 376e), and philosophy is at times presented as the best "music" there is, as in the myth of the cicada at Phædrus, 259b-d. This myth, created by Plato, describes cicadas (that are buzzing in the heat of a sunny summer day at noon in the countryside where the dialogue is taking place) as men who so fell in love with music after the Muses were born that they even stopped eating and died singing, and who were transformed in cicadas by the Muses at their death, and from then on, report to them which men best honor them. In this myth, Plato mentions by name Terpsichore being shown the lovers of dance, Erato being shown those involved in "erôtika", that is, things having to do with love, and Calliope, presented as the oldest, and Urania, next to her, teaming together to represent the most beautiful heavenly voice, being shown those involved in "philosophia".
In the Cratylus (406a), when playing the etymology game, Socrates searches the origin of the word Mousai in a little used verb, "môsthai", meaning "to seek after", implying that the Muses are the protectors of those involved in "research". And in the Laws, the Athenian presents together the Muses under the leadership of Apollo, and Dionysus as the gods that should lead our festivals (Laws, II, 653d). He later goes on to insitute three choirs in these festivals, the choir of children dedicated to the Muses, the choir of grown ups up to 30, dedicated to Apollo, and the choir of elders dedicated to Dionysus (Laws, II, 664c-665b).
Yet, not all "muses" will do ! In the Cratylus, Socrates makes ironic references to "Euthyphro's muse" as inspiring him in his etymological inquiries (409d and 428c) ; and the Republic warns us against too "seasoned" a muse (Republic, X, 607a).
In the Academy, the school Plato founded in Athens, there was a shrine to the Muses, a Mouseion, that was also used as a library (the word "mouseion" is at the root of the English word "museum").
References to the Muses in the dialogues, except for one in the Alcibiades (108c12), are all found in dialogues from tetralogies 4 to 7 :

• Symposium, 180d, 181c (where the name Urania is given by Pausanias to the noble Aphrodite, opposed to Aphrodite "Pandemon", the vulgar one) ; 187d-e (where Eryximachus tries to restore their role to the Muses by opposing the heavenly love coming from the muse Urania to the vulgar one coming from the muse Polyhymnia, whose name, like Pandemon which means "for all the people" in Greek, implies the idea of multiplicity : Polyhymnia, that is, the many hymns) ; 189b (where Aristophanes refers to his Muse without naming her) ; 197b (where Agathon presents the Muses, along with Apollo, Hephæstus, Athena and even Zeus, as pupils of Eros) ;
• Phædrus, 237a (Socrates invokes the Muses at the beginning of his first speech) ; 245a (Socrates' second speech : the Muses, source of the third sort of mania, poetic inspiration) ; 259b-d (myth of cicadas) ; 262d ; 265b ;
• Republic, II, 364e (Adeimantus, in his introductory speech, refers to Orpheus, offspring of the Muses) ; III, 411c (to "consort with the Muse (koinônè Mousès)" as a necessary complement to gymnastics lest one becomes amousos, deprived of "harmony" in the soul, and misologos, fearful of reason (see Phædo, 89d+ about "mysology")) ; VIII, 545d (at the start of his description of the degeneracy of man and government, Socrates mocks Homer invoking the Muses to give a pseudo-tragic tone to his story) ; 547a-b ; 548b (it is the abandonment of "the true Muse of speeches and philosophy (logôn te kai philosophias)" which is at the root of the decay) ; X, 607a (in his criticism of poetry and Homer as educators of Greece, Socrates says that "if the seasoned Muse takes over in melodies or lyrics (melesin è epesin), pleasure and pain will become kings in the city instead of law") ;
• Cratylus, 406a (etymology of "Muses") ; 409d ; 428c (ironic references to "Euthyphro's muse") ;
• Ion, 533d-536d (Socrates' theory of inspiration moving from the Muses to the listener of a recited poem as the magnetic power moves from the magnet through the rings of a chain) ;
• Euthydemus, 275d (Socrates invokes the Muses to help him tell Crito the story of his encouter with the two eristic brothers) ;
• Theætetus, 191d (the block of wax that might represent our soul is a gift of "Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses") ;
• Sophist, 242d (in his short history of earlier doctrines, the Elean Stanger refers to "Ionian and Sicilian Muses") ;
• Statesman, 307b ; 309d (the true stateman is helped by "the muse of kingship (tè tès basilikès mousè)") ;
• Philebus, 67b (in one of his last lines, Socrates opposes those who prefer the testimony of wild beasts about a life of pleasure to that of the love of logôn (rational inquiries) inspired by "the philosophical muse") ;
• Timæus, 47d (in searching for the intelligible rather than material reasons why the gods gave us sight and hearing, Timæus ascribes the gifts of harmony and rythm to the Muses to provide us with an understanding of the harmony and due measure we should build in our souls) ;
• Critias, 108c (Hermocrates invites Critias, before he starts, to invoke Pæon (another name of Apollo healer) and the Muses, to which Critias adds Mnemosyne (Memory)) ;
• Laws, numerous references to the Muses (plural) :II, 653d (the Muses along with Apollo and Dionysus to share in our festivals) ; 654a (education comes from Apollo and the Muses) ; 656c (role of laws relating to "education and recreation in connection with the Muses (tèn peri tas Mousas paideian te kai paidian)") ; 664c-665b (the three choirs) ; 669b-670b (the Muses as models for musical education) ; 672d (summary of earlier matters about the role of Apollo, the Muses and Dionysus) ; III, 682a (the inspiration of the poets by the Muses explains why they often unknowingly hit the truth) ; VI, 775b (mention of "the Muses of marriage") ; 783a (role of the Muses in taming our appetites for food, drink and sex) ; VII, 796e(develoments on education relating to "the gifts of Apollo and the Muses") ; 817d (speech to the tragedians, "offspring of the soft (malakôn) Muses") ; many more references to mousa (singular), usually not refering to a specific Muse of mythology.