Random musing

[wombat1138]

Other "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.)

Comments

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

The post was directly inspired by the Wednesday comic, after all :) though now that #4 has been identified as "Otilia, the Muse of Protection", possibly all bets are off wrt tight correspondences to the classical Greek muses.