and Lute, to Erato; to Calliope, Heroick Verse; to Ʋrania, Astrology; and Rhetorick to Poly∣hymnia. Diodorus says afterwards, that the Word Muse comes from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifies to teach hidden Things, and such as are above the Capacity of the Vulgar; after which he gives a Reason for the several Names given to the Nine Muses. Its manifest that all these Names are Greek, and that they have all of them a Relati∣on to the Nature and Agreeableness of Musick and Poetry; which has very much inclined Men to believe, that the same is purely a Greek In∣vention, and that 'tis no other than a Moral Ge∣nealogy, like unto that which sometimes they make of Vertues and Vices; and the Name of their Mother, which is Memory, is also a Proof hereof.
However, this very same Historian puts Mne∣mosyne among the Titanes, and makes the Nine Muses to accompany Osiris in his Military Expe∣ditions, when he gives an Account of the Theo∣logy of the Egyptians: Risûs amator erat osiris, & musicâ choreisque gaudebat. Ideò Musicorum agmen circumducebat, in quo novem erant Vir∣gines, canendi scientiâ praestantes, &c. eruditae, Graci Musas vocant, quarum praeses Apollo, undè Musagetes dictus. Thus you see the Origin of the Muses of Greece laid in Egypt, tho' Greece gives them proper Names, and to each a particu∣lar Function: Egypt is deprived of them, and they are naturaliz'd in divers Parts of Greece, whether the same were Fountains, Woods, Mountains or Cities. Diodorus also makes the Muses to accom∣pany Bacchus in his Expeditions. It may be far∣ther conjectured, that the Name of Muse came originally from Phoenicia, seeing the Word Mou∣sar signifies Instruction and Learning. There are some Criticks who believe there were no more than Three Muses at first, to whom Mount He∣licon was consecrated, and that there having been Three Statues erected to each of them, it was given out there were Nine of them, that Pierius, in Baeotia, consecrated his Nine Daugh∣ters to them, which made their Names to be common to them. Plutarch in his Symposiacs, a little before the End thereof, treats of the Muses: 'Tis a meer Allegory, wherein he ap∣plies the Nine Muses, either to Nine several Sciences, or to as many Coelestial Globes, in or∣der to unite them all into one Harmony.
Clemens Alexandrinus read in some pro∣phane Authors, that which he relates concern∣ing Macar, King of Libya; who being continu∣ally jangling with the Queen his Wife, their Daughter Megaclo bought Nine Maid servants, put them to learn Musick, and to play upon In∣struments, that so by the Melody of their Con∣sort, she might divert the peevish Humour of her Father. This ingenious Piety in her had the desired Success, and she erected Nine Co∣lumns in Honour of these Nine Female Musici∣ans, to whom afterwards great Honours were gi∣ven. The Poets represent the Muses unto us, very beautiful and young, adorned with Gar∣lands of Flowers, and made their Residence to be on Mount Parnassus, and Helicon with Apollo: To them they consecrated several Foun∣tains, as that called Hippoerene, or the Fountain of the Horse Pegasus; and among Trees, the Palm, and Lawrel.