Random musing
Jan. 19th, 2010 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138Other "Girl Genius" readers are likely to've tried this already, but here's my stab at identifying Van Rijn's muses as seen from left to right, with brief rationales:
1.) halo of trumpets -> Euterpe (music) classically depicted with a flute
2.) globe -> ? maybe Erato (lyric/love poetry), if the globe is a vaguely Sparky analogue of a lyre) or Clio (history)-- this isn't Urania, because that's who #7 has to be.
3.) book -> ? Clio, if analogous to a scroll) or Calliope (epic poetry), if analogous to a writing tablet
4.) black hair/collar: Thalia (comedy), as paired with #6.
5.) wings and tiara -> Calliope?
6.) black gown: Melpomene (tragedy), as paired w/ #4
7.) compass and staff, looking upward -> Urania (astronomy); usually she holds these items to point to a globe, but #2 has that instead.
8.) Moxana; resting her elbows and raising fingers up toward her mouth, also looking upward -> Polyhymnia (choral poetry and mime)
9.) Tinka; smiling, with only one foot on the earth: Terpsichore (dance)
By process of elimination through my guesses for #2, 3, and 5, that makes them Euterpe (music), Erato (lyric/love poetry), Clio (history), Thalia (comedy), Calliope (epics), Melpomene (tragedy), Urania (astronomy), Polyhymnia (mime/chorals), and Terpsichore (dance).
Anyway, whoever #5 is, Lucrezia seems to've made her very unhappy.
(Belated headbonk-- the Muses' association with the "Storm King" reinforces his role as an analogue of the "Sun King" because of the connection with Apollo.)
1.) halo of trumpets -> Euterpe (music) classically depicted with a flute
2.) globe -> ? maybe Erato (lyric/love poetry), if the globe is a vaguely Sparky analogue of a lyre) or Clio (history)-- this isn't Urania, because that's who #7 has to be.
3.) book -> ? Clio, if analogous to a scroll) or Calliope (epic poetry), if analogous to a writing tablet
4.) black hair/collar: Thalia (comedy), as paired with #6.
5.) wings and tiara -> Calliope?
6.) black gown: Melpomene (tragedy), as paired w/ #4
7.) compass and staff, looking upward -> Urania (astronomy); usually she holds these items to point to a globe, but #2 has that instead.
8.) Moxana; resting her elbows and raising fingers up toward her mouth, also looking upward -> Polyhymnia (choral poetry and mime)
9.) Tinka; smiling, with only one foot on the earth: Terpsichore (dance)
By process of elimination through my guesses for #2, 3, and 5, that makes them Euterpe (music), Erato (lyric/love poetry), Clio (history), Thalia (comedy), Calliope (epics), Melpomene (tragedy), Urania (astronomy), Polyhymnia (mime/chorals), and Terpsichore (dance).
Anyway, whoever #5 is, Lucrezia seems to've made her very unhappy.
(Belated headbonk-- the Muses' association with the "Storm King" reinforces his role as an analogue of the "Sun King" because of the connection with Apollo.)
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no subject
on 2010-01-20 03:48 am (UTC)I wonder if the entirely-too-many-kinds-of-poetry didn't confuse things a bit.
But if #4 is the unhappy one, why isn't she Melpomene (tragedy)?
I'd be inclined to call #2 Urania even though I don't know what #7 would then become. Maybe some aspects got redistributed and #7 is the muse of navigation or something. What's that keyring-like object dangling from her belt?
I don't know what that cauldron thing is, either, but if Polyhymnia does mime, maybe that's why she lacks a visible mouth.
no subject
on 2010-01-20 05:04 pm (UTC)Moxana (#8) is shown in more detail earlier in the series; she has no mouth/voice and communicates via symbolic tarot-like cards. The cauldron/table thing may be permanently attached to her, with the wheels for movement; I'm not sure whether she actually has legs, either.