Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Clio ( , ; ), also spelled Kleio, Сleio, or Cleo, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre-playing.

Etymology

Clio's name is derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλείω (meaning "to recount", "to make famous" or "to celebrate"). The name's traditional Latinisation is Clio, Lewis and Short, ''A Latin Dictionary: Founded on Andrews' Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary: Revised, Enlarged, and in Great Part Rewritten by Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL.D''. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879, ''s.v.'' but some modern systems such as the American Library Association-Library of Congress system use ''K'' to represent the original Greek '' kappa'', and ''ei'' to represent the diphthong ''ει'' ( epsilon iota), thus ''Kleio''.

Depiction

Clio, sometimes referred to as "the Proclaimer", is often represented with an open parchment scroll, a book, or a set of tablets. She is also shown with the heroic trumpet and the clepsydra (water clock). Cesare Ripa's ''Iconologia'', an important source book for artists of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

period, stated that Clio should be depicted with a crown of laurels, a trumpet and an open book.

Mythology

Like all the muses, Clio is a daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. Along with her sister Muses, she is considered to dwell at either Mount Helicon or Mount Parnassos. Other common locations for the Muses are Pieria in Thessaly, near to Mount Olympus. She had one son, Hyacinth, with one of several kings, in various mythswith Pierus or with king Oebalus of Sparta, or with king Amyclas, progenitor of the people of Amyclae, dwellers about Sparta. In a scholium to Euripides' '' Rhesus'', she is also the mother of Hymenaeus and Rhesus. According to Apollodorus, Clio was made to fall in love with Pierus by Aphrodite, for Clio had derided her for her love affair with Adonis.Apollodorus
1.3.3
/ref> Other accounts credit her as the mother of Linus by Magnes, a poet who was buried at Argos, although Linus has a number of differing parents depending upon the account, including several accounts in which he is the son of Clio's sisters Urania or

Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; ) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses". Mythology Calliope had two famous sons, OrpheusH ...

Legacy

In her capacity as "the proclaimer, glorifier and celebrator of history, great deeds and accomplishments"Carder, Sheri
"Clio Awards"
''The Guide to United States popular culture'', pages 180–181, Clio is used in the name of various modern brands, including the Clio Awards for excellence in advertising. The Cambridge University History Society is informally referred to as Clio; the Cleo of Alpha Chi society at Trinity College, Connecticut, is named after the muse. Likewise, the undergraduate student outreach group for the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania is known as the Clio Society, and the first sorority founded at SUNY Geneseo, Phi Kappa Pi, began as the Alpha Clionian literary society. "Clio" also represents

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

in some coined words in academic usage: cliometrics, cliodynamics. Clio Bay in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after the muse.

Gallery

File:Statue of Clio in Berlin.jpg, Statue of Clio by Albert Wolff in Berlin File:Moreelse Clio - muse of history.jpg, ''Clio, Muse of History'' by Johannes Moreelse File:Gentileschi, Artemisia - Clio - 1632.jpg, ''Clio, the Muse of History'' (1632) by Artemisia Gentileschi. File:Pierre Mignard - Clio - WGA15654.jpg, ''The Muse Clio'' (c. 1689) by Pierre Mignard File:Christian Bernhard Rode - Die Muse Klio.jpg, ''The Muse Clio'' by Bernhard Rode File:Charles Meynier - Clio, Muse of History - 2003.6.5 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff, ''Clio, Muse of History'' (1800) by Charles Meynier File:Car of history.jpg, ''Car of History'', a chariot clock depicting Clio, by Carlo Franzoni, 1819, in National Statuary Hall File:HC Lea grave LH Philly.jpg, Sculpture of Clio by Alexander Stirling Calder on the tomb of historian Henry Charles Lea

Notes

References

* Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* ''Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 3'', Cat-Cyp, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2003.
Online version at Brill
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library

External links

Warburg Institute Iconographic Database

{{Authority control Children of Zeus Deeds of Aphrodite Muses (mythology) Greek goddesses Historiography of Greece Metamorphoses characters Music and singing goddesses Pierian mythology Wisdom goddesses