Thalia Biography

Thalia
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Thalia can refer to four distinct entities in Greek mythology, two of whom were daughters of Zeus, and a third of whom bore him sons. The name Thalia, or Thaleia (both pronounced /θəˈlaɪə/) is spelled Θάλεια in Greek and derives from the same stem as θάλλειν "to bloom".

The Muse

Thalia was a rustic goddess, one of the three Graces, and the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context, her name means “flourishing,” because the praises in her songs flourish through time.1 Thalia was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. In art, Thalia was portrayed holding a comic mask, a shepherd’s staff, or a wreath of ivy. According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes.2

See also

References

  1. ^ Theoi Project - Mousa Thaleia
  2. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.3.4. Other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes different parents; see Sir James Frazer's note on the passage in the Bibliotheca.