Terpsichore is one of the nine Muses, the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne, the personification of memory, who according to the tradition were conceived over nine successive nights in Pieria. Her sisters are Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Thalia, and Urania.

Several offspring are attributed to her in different accounts. She is most often named as the mother of the Sirens by the river-god Achelous. Other traditions make her the mother of the Thracian king Rhesus by the river-god Strymon, of Biston by Ares, and she is also listed among the parents credited with the musician Linus.

Terpsichore presides over dance and the choral song that accompanied it, a domain that in archaic Greece united music, poetry, and movement. As the Muse of the chorus she was associated with the rhythmic, communal performances central to festival and theatrical life.

In art she is usually depicted seated, holding a lyre and often a plectrum, accompanying with her music the dancers she inspires. The lyre is her most consistent attribute.

Terpsichore's name attached itself to later works across the arts and letters. The fifth book of Herodotus's Histories was named after her, following the convention of naming the nine books of that work for the Muses.

Her name also titles Michael Praetorius's 1612 collection of dance tunes, Terpsichore, and figures in the prologue Terpsicore that George Frideric Handel composed in 1734. She appears in surviving ancient images, including Roman frescoes from Pompeii and sculptures from Hadrian's Villa.