Thalia (Muse)

Thalia (/θəˈlaɪə/; Ancient Greek: Θάλεια, Θαλία; "the joyous, the flourishing", from Ancient Greek: θάλλειν, thállein; "to flourish, to be verdant") was the Muse who presided over comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context her name means "flourishing", because the praises in her songs flourish through time. She was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses.

According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes. Other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes different parents.

She was portrayed as a young woman with a joyous air, crowned with ivy, wearing boots and holding a comic mask in her hand. Many of her statues also hold a bugle and a trumpet (both used to support the actors' voices in ancient comedy), or occasionally a shepherd’s staff or a wreath of ivy.

See also

Notes

References

Thalia

Thalia, Thalía, Thaleia, or Thalian (/θəˈlaɪ.ə/; Greek: Θάλεια from θάλλειν "to bloom") may refer to:

Greek mythological figures

Arts

Flora and fauna

Muse

The Muses /ˈmjuːzᵻz/ (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι Mousai; perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- "think") in Greek mythology are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song-lyrics, and myths that were related orally for centuries in these ancient cultures. They were later adopted by the Romans as a part of their pantheon.

In current English usage, "muse" can refer in general to a person who inspires an artist, writer, or musician.

Political allusions to the influential roles that the muse plays within the political sphere has also been referenced in current American literature.

Origins

The earliest known records of the Muses are from Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod. Some ancient authorities thought that the Muses were of Thracian origin. There, a tradition persisted that the Muses had once been three in number. Diodorus Siculus quotes Hesiod to the contrary, observing:

Gabriel Mouton

Gabriel Mouton (1618 – 28 September 1694) was a French abbot and scientist. He was a doctor of theology from Lyon, but was also interested in mathematics and astronomy. His 1670 book, the Observationes diametrorum solis et lunae apparentium, proposed a natural standard of length based on the circumference of the Earth, and was decimally divided. It was influential in the adoption of the metric system in 1799.

The milliare

Based on the measurements of the size of the Earth conducted by Riccioli of Bologna (at 321,815 Bologna feet to the degree), Mouton proposed a decimal system of measurement based on the circumference of the Earth, explaining the advantages of a system based on nature. Mouton's publication appeared two years after John Wilkins, then president of the Royal Society, published a similar proposal.

His suggestion was a unit, the milliare, that was defined as a minute of arc along a meridian arc, and a system of sub-units, dividing successively by factors of ten into the centuria, decuria, virga, virgula, decima, centesima, and millesima. The virga, 1/1000 of a minute of arc, corresponding to 64.4 Bologna inches, or ~2.04 m, was reasonably close to the then current unit of length, the Parisian toise (~1.95 m) – a feature which was meant to make acceptance of the new unit easier.