Editing Melpomene (section)

== Invocation and use ==

=== Literature ===
In Greek and Latin poetry since [[Horace]] (d. 8 BC), it was commonly auspicious to invoke Melpomene.<ref>Bruce Merry, ''Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature'' (Santa Barbara CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004), 269-70. {{ISBN|0313308136}}</ref> Horace invokes Melpomene in Ode 3.30, when he describes his poetry as a monument as great as any king's tomb. The poet asks Melpomene to crown him with a [[laurel wreath]] and make him a [[poet laureate]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hardie |first=Philip Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6LfQEAAAQBAJ |title=Selected Papers on Ancient Literature and its Reception |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-11-079885-2 |page=616}}</ref>

=== Visual art ===
The oldest surviving portrait of [[Virgil]], a mosaic dated to the first century, features Virgil between Melpomene and [[Clio]], the muse of history. Theologian Louis A. Ruprecht interpreted this as a commentary on the similarities of recording history and writing fictional works of tragedy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ruprecht |first=Louis A. |date=1997 |title=Clio and Melpomene: In Defense of the Historical Novel |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41299101 |journal=Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=389–390 |jstor=41299101 |issn=0315-7997}}</ref>

The 2018 excavation of a [[Ancient Roman bathing|Roman bathhouse]] in [[Decapolis]] uncovered six mostly preserved statues of the Muses. The statue of Melpomene was 62 centimeters tall and made of [[Pentelic marble]]. Its head was lost, but it was identifiable by the drama mask lying on its thigh.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Al-Bashaireh |first1=Khaled |last2=Weber-Karyotakis |first2=Thomas M. |date=2021 |title=The muses and other statues of the Eastern Roman Baths of Gerasa, Jordan (2018 Campaign): Form and provenance |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352409X21000742 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=36 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102862|bibcode=2021JArSR..36j2862A }}</ref>

The tragic actress [[Sarah Siddons]] posed for several paintings depicted as Melpomene in the 1780s and 1790s. The 1784 [[Joshua Reynolds]] painting ''[[Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse]]'' is recognized as a high point in the careers of both Siddons and Reynolds.<ref name=":02"/>

=== Science ===
The minor planet [[18 Melpomene]] was named after the muse by the British [[Astronomer Royal]] in 1852, [[George Biddell Airy]]. He chose a name representing tragedy because his daughter, Elizabeth, had died on the day it was discovered, which was also the thirteenth anniversary of an earlier son's death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmadel |first=Lutz |url=https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7 |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-540-00238-3 |page=17|doi=10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7 }}</ref>