Thalia (also Thaleia; Ancient Greek Θάλεια) was one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology, the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne. She presided over comedy and idyllic or pastoral poetry. The eighth-born of the sisters, she was conventionally depicted as a cheerful young woman crowned with ivy and holding a comic mask, and through Apollo she was sometimes named as the mother of the Corybantes.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Thalia (Muse)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Thalia was a daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne (Memory), and was counted the eighth-born of the nine Muses. Her eight sisters were Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, and Urania.
She was paired with the god Apollo, and according to Apollodorus the two were the parents of the Corybantes, the armored attendant spirits associated with ecstatic dance.
II.Domain
Among the nine Muses, who personified the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts, Thalia was the patron of comedy and of idyllic or pastoral poetry. Her flourishing name suited this cheerful, life-affirming sphere of song.
III.Iconography
Thalia was conventionally represented as a young woman of joyous air, crowned with ivy and wearing boots, holding a comic mask in her hand. The mask, emblem of the comic stage, is her most characteristic attribute.
In sculpture and other depictions she was also shown carrying a bugle or trumpet, and on occasion a shepherd's staff or a wreath of ivy, attributes that point as well to her association with pastoral poetry.
IV.In ancient art
Several ancient images of Thalia survive from the Roman period. A statue recovered from Hadrian's Villa is now held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, and she appears among the figures painted in frescoes preserved at Pompeii.