In
Greek mythology, Erato (/ˈɛrətoʊ/;
Ancient Greek: Ἐρατώ) is one of the Greek
Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as
Eros, as
Apollonius of Rhodes playfully suggested in the invocation to Erato that begins Book III of his Argonautica.[1]
Function
Erato is the Muse of lyric poetry, particularly erotic poetry, and mimic imitation. In the
Orphic hymn to the Muses, it is Erato who charms the sight. Since the
Renaissance she has mostly been shown with a wreath of
myrtle and
roses, holding a
lyre, or a small
kithara, a musical instrument often associated with
Apollo.[2] In
Simon Vouet's representations, two turtle-doves are eating seeds at her feet. She is sometimes depicted holding a golden arrow, symbolizing "eros", the feeling she inspires in everybody; at times she is accompanied by
Eros, holding a torch.
Her father gave Erato to Malus (eponym of
Malea), as a bride and by him became the mother of Cleophema who bore
Aegle (
Coronis) by
Phlegyas.[4]
Development
Erato was named with the other muses in
Hesiod's Theogony. She was also invoked at the beginning of a lost poem, Rhadine (Ῥαδινή), that was referred to and briefly quoted by
Strabo.[5] The love story of
Rhadine made her supposed tomb on the island of
Samos a pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers in the time of
Pausanias[6] and Erato was linked again with love in
Plato's Phaedrus;[7] nevertheless, even in the third century BC, when Apollonius wrote, the Muses were not yet as inextricably linked to specific types of poetry as they became.[8]
Erato is also invoked at the start of book 7 of
Virgil's Aeneid, which marks the beginning of the second half or "Iliadic" section of the poem.
^In Geography 8.3.20; Strabo's attribution of the poem to
Stesichorus was refuted by H. J. Rose, "Stesichoros and the Rhadine-Fragment", The Classical Quarterly26.2 (April 1932), pp. 88–92.