Minerva and the Nine Muses

Its source is a passage in The Metamorphoses by the classical Roman author Ovid (5:250-268) in which Minerva (Greek: Pallas Athena), goddess of wisdom and patroness of the arts, visits the nine Muses on Mount Helicon to seea sacred spring called the Hippocrene. Minerva stands at the left.Seated just right of center with a large orb in her lap, Urania, Museof astronomy, gestures to the spring, just visible in the upper right.To the left of Urania is Clio (history); to the right of Urania stands Polyhymnia (choral poetry). In the background shadows are Thalia(comedy) and Melpomene (tragedy). Erato (lyric poetry) is in front of them. Calliope (epic poetry) and Euterpe (music; holding a flute) sit at the right, and Terpsichore (dance) sits with her back to us. Judging from the shimmering light and the mysterious darkness of the wood behind the nymphs, day is nearing its end.

The subject was taken up by numerous northern European painters including Frans Floris, Bartholomeus Spranger, Joachim Wtewael, Hendrick de Clerck, David Teniers the Elder, Gerard de Lairesse, Jacob de Wit, Johann Konig, and Hans Rottenhammer.