HEAD OF A MUSE

1st century AD
Roman Empire
Marble

This head is identifiable as a deity through her flower crown, but since we lack the body, it is hard to conclude her specific identity. We call her a Muse because Roman images of muses often included flowered circlets and crowns. In their Greek roots, the muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. They were the keepers of divine knowledge and the personifications of inspiration. They imparted this knowledge on the fortunate mortals who could interpret their messages in art. They are credited for song, poetry, even the art that they star in. In the Roman world, they appeared in statue groups. This is just one head, but she would have been accompanied by her sisters and likely the god Apollo, the patron of the arts. 

What is a muse? You might hear an artist today talk about a specific person, place, memory, or feeling as their “muse.” It is what inspires them to make art, the passion that drives them to create. We do not honor muses as deities, but we still refer to the concept of the muse as “divine inspiration,” and that idea is entirely Greek. While the portrayal of many ancient deities died out after the rise of Christianity and throughout the Middle Ages, the concept of the muse continued to evolve in ideology and art. They can be seen in some variations of 15th century Italian tarot cards, where they again represented inspiration and imagination. The most concrete way we see muses today is through spaces like Pyramid Hill and the Ancient Sculpture Museum. Mouseion in Greek means “seat of the Muses,” and it is where we get the word “museum” itself.