Editing Muses (section)

===In literature===
[[File:Musas01.jpg|thumb|upright|''Melpomene and Polyhymnia'', [[Palacio de Bellas Artes]], Mexico]]

Ancient authors and some later authors and artists [[invocation|invoke]] Muses when writing poetry, hymns or epic history. Ancient authors invocations often occur near the beginning of their work. It asks for help or inspiration from the Muses, or simply invites the Muse to sing directly through the author.

Originally, the invocation of the Muse was an indication that the speaker was working inside the poetic tradition, according to the established formulas. For example:

<blockquote>These things declare to me from the beginning,

ye Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus,

and tell me which of them first came to be.

— [[Hesiod]] (c. 700 BCE), ''[[Theogony]]'' (Hugh G. Evelyn-White translation, 2015)

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns

driven time and again off course, once he had plundered

the hallowed heights of Troy.
:—[[Homer]] (c. 700 - 600 BCE), in Book I of ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' ([[Robert Fagles]] translation, 1996)</blockquote>

<blockquote>O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;

For what offence the Queen of Heav'n began

To persecute so brave, so just a man; [...] 
:—[[Virgil]] (c. 29 - 19 BCE), in Book I of the ''[[Aeneid]]'' ([[John Dryden]] translation, 1697)</blockquote>

Besides Homer and Virgil, other famous works that included an invocation of the Muse are the first of the ''carmina'' by [[Catullus]], [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' and ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]'', [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[The Divine Comedy#Inferno|Inferno]]'' (Canto II), [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer's]] ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' (Book II), [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'' (Act 1, Prologue), his 38th [[Shakespeare's sonnets|sonnet]], and [[John Milton|Milton's]] ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' (openings of Books 1 and 7).
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Modern invocations of the Muses have appeared in a variety of literary and adult video sources. The Muses are [[Burlesque|burlesqued]] in the 1980 feature film ''[[Xanadu (film)|Xanadu]]'' (and its 2007 [[Xanadu (musical)|Broadway musical adaptation]]), which place Terpsichore and Clio, respectively, in the leading role under the pseudonym "Kira". The Muses were also reduced to five in the 1997 Disney film ''Hercules'', and narrated the story through gospel music. Those five were Clio, Thalia, Melpomene, Calliope, and Terpischore.
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