In Greek mythology, Calliope (Ancient Greek: Καλλιόπη, Kalliopē, "beautiful-voiced") is the Muse who presides over epic poetry and eloquence. The eldest of the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne, she was regarded by classical authors as the chief and wisest of her sisters. She is best known as the mother of the legendary musician Orpheus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Calliope" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Calliope is one of the nine Muses, the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne, the personification of memory. Her sisters are Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.
Her best-known son is the musician and poet Orpheus, fathered either by the Thracian king Oeagrus or by Apollo. She is also named as the mother of Linus, and in various accounts of other offspring, including the Corybantes, the Sirens, and Rhesus, attributed to unions with Zeus, the river-god Achelous, and the river-god Strymon respectively.
II.Role and attributes
Calliope presides over eloquence and epic poetry, and ancient writers such as Hesiod and Ovid singled her out as the wisest and most assertive of the Muses, the foremost among them. The Roman poet Virgil invokes her in the Aeneid to aid his martial song.
In art she is usually depicted holding a writing tablet and stylus, and is sometimes shown carrying a roll of paper or a book, or wearing a golden crown. According to myth she taught her son Orpheus the verses he sang.
III.Mythology
In one well-known episode Calliope defeated the Pierides, the daughters of Pierus, in a singing contest, after which the losers were transformed into magpies.
She was said to have married Oeagrus near Pimpleia, close to Mount Olympus. Her cultural legacy persists in later literature, where Dante calls upon her in the Divine Comedy to lend a higher key to his verse.