Who is calliope

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'calliope. Send us feedback. See more words from the same century. Accessed 12 Nov. Nglish: Translation of calliope for Spanish Speakers.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of calliope. Did you know? Each one of them had a specific domain in the arts.

She was also the goddess of eloquence, and according to the myths, she was in charge of giving heroes and gods this gift. Her name in Ancient Greek stands for Beautiful-voiced.

Calliope and the other Muses frequented Mount Helicon, where they had contests, and mortals worshipped them. People went there to ask for their assistance.

However, they dwelt on Mount Olympus, where they were at the service of the gods. In the myths, Calliope married King Oeagrus of Thrace, and together they had the lyre-playing Greek hero Orpheus and the musician Linus. Calliope taught Orpheus music, but it would be the god Apollo who would finish his education. Apollo made Orpheus the great musician, poet, and prophet he wound up being.

His musical talent was so astonishing that his singing made creatures, trees, and stones follow him. Calliope is also the mother of Linus, the great musician, and inventor of rhythm and melody. For hundreds, if not thousands, of years, the stories of the gods had been sung and set to music. Bards trained for years to memorize the poetic songs that both educated and entertained the people of the pre-literate Greek world.

Playing music along with the stories helped to make them more memorable. Bards could more accurately recall words when they were set to a tune and the performance made the stories more memorable to the audience. Thus, Calliope did not just inspire written words.

She inspired the songs that the stories were set to as well. She was the goddess of epic poetry and singers because the writers and performers of epic poems would have been singers as well as poets. In the oral tradition, therefore, it was important for the Muses to be linked to Mnemosyne.

They could inspire accuracy as well as artistry because their mother was the personification of memory. The invocation to the Muse was not important just for the original writer to receive inspiration. Its repetition ensured that the words and music that accompanied them would be remembered. Long after written poetry had taken the place of memorized performances, poets continued to invoke Calliope in this tradition. Virgil and Ovid, both writing during the early Roman Empire , continued to invoke the Greek Muses, particularly Calliope, when telling stories based on mythology.

The Muse of epic poetry was particularly important because her role was associated with this mythology. The epic poems inspired by Calliope, however, told the stories of the gods and the history of the people. Their recitation was often the most accessible form of religious education for the common people of Rome. Because the epics directly concerned the gods, it was even more important to ensure that they were accurate and well-written.

A mistake in their telling could mislead the listener and, even worse, insult the gods. They were named Hymen and Ialemus. The bard Orpheus is the most famous child of the Greek muse. He was murdered by Bacchantes, and Calliope was devastated.

The island of Lesbos was dedicated to her son, who has also been mentioned in literature throughout centuries. Calliope is said to have had a relationship with Achilles. She taught him how to sing which encouraged rowdiness while he drank. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

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