The Muses and Their Afterlife in Post-Classical Europe

This interdisciplinary collection of essays considers the identity of the Muses in Antiquity and through centuries of their afterlife, tracing their religious, educational and philosophical meaning in classical Greece and their subsequent transformation and re-interpretation in a range of post-classical contexts. Individual contributors consider the invocation of the Muses in different places and at different times by those in search of inspiration, immortality and fame. The volume addresses the concept of the Muses from the perspective of philology, philosophy, art history, antiquarianism and musicology, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. It concludes with a discussion of the place of the Muses in Aby Warburg’s cultural theory. Published with the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Düsseldorf. Contents John Dillon, The Muses in the Platonic Academy Penelope Murray, The Muses in Antiquity Karin Schlapbach, The Temporality of the Muses: A Reading of the Sister Goddesses in Late Antique Latin Literature Peter Dronke The Muses and Medieval Latin Poets Ulrich Pfisterer The Muses’ Grief. Jacopo de’ Barbari on Painting, Poetry and Cultural Transfer in the North Kathleen W. Christian The Multiplicity of the Muses: The Reception of Antique Images of the Muses in Italy, 1400–1600 Brigitte Van Wymeersch The Muses and Musical Inspiration in Early Modern France: The Case of Pontus de Tyard and Mersenne Jan Söffner Poetic Frenzy and the Afterlife of the Muses in Ficino’s In Platonis Ionem and Bruno’s De gli heroici furori Clare E. L. Guest The Growth of the Pygmy Muses: the Muses in Italian Sixteenth-century Poetics Claudia Wedepohl Mnemosyne, the Muses and Apollo: Mythology as Epistemology in Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas