Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Polyhymnia.
The gallery
Polyhymnia, Muse of Eloquence
Charles Meynier, 1800
Painted by the French Neoclassical artist Charles Meynier as part of an Apollo-and-the-Muses ensemble now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, this canvas personifies Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred hymn and solemn eloquence. She is shown in the meditative pose that became her hallmark — wrapped in a plain enveloping mantle and leaning thoughtfully, lost in contemplation rather than performance. As the most grave and inward of the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Polyhymnia presided over the hymns sung to the gods and over the silent, pondered word; Meynier's restrained, classicizing figure embodies exactly that reflective solemnity that distinguished her from her livelier sisters.
Polyhymnia, Muse of Eloquence
Simon Vouet, c. 1625–1650
By the French Baroque painter Simon Vouet, leader of the Parisian school after his return from Rome, this work portrays Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred song and eloquence. Veiled and pensive, she is rendered with the gravity and downcast absorption that ancient and Renaissance tradition assigned to her, the most solemn of the nine Muses. As the patroness of hymns addressed to gods and heroes and of the persuasive, measured word, Polyhymnia stands apart from the music and dance of her sisters; Vouet's contemplative figure captures the inwardness of a Muse associated with silence, devotion, and the dignity of speech.
Polyhymnia
Giuseppe Fagnani, 1869
From the cycle of the Nine Muses painted by the Italian-American artist Giuseppe Fagnani and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this canvas presents Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred hymn. Fagnani follows the canonical iconography of the most solemn Muse: a pensive, veiled figure draped in a plain mantle, her thoughtful gaze turning inward as though weighing the words of a hymn. In the ancient division of the arts among the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Polyhymnia governed devotional song and the grave, persuasive eloquence offered to the gods, and Fagnani's quiet, contemplative portrait honours that reflective character.