Urania (Ourania) was, in Greek mythology, the Muse of astronomy and astrology, one of the nine Muses born to Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne. Her name means "heavenly" or "of heaven," and as a great-granddaughter of the sky-god Uranus she presided over the contemplation of the heavens and the prediction of the future from the arrangement of the stars. In ancient art she is identified by her characteristic attributes, the celestial globe and the pointer or staff, and she came to be associated with philosophy, universal love, and those whose concerns turn toward the sky.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Urania" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Urania was the daughter of Zeus by the Titaness Mnemosyne, and through her father she was a great-granddaughter of the primordial sky-god Uranus. Her eight sisters were the other Muses: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, and Thalia.
Some accounts make her the mother of the musician Linus, fathered variously by Apollo, by Hermes, or by Amphimarus, a son of Poseidon. Hymenaeus, the god of the marriage hymn, was also said in some traditions to have been her son.
II.Role and attributes
As the Muse of astronomy and astrology, Urania presided over the study and contemplation of the heavens. She was said to be able to foretell the future from the arrangement of the stars, and those most concerned with philosophy and the heavens were held to be dearest to her. Later tradition often associated her with universal love, and described her as inheriting the majesty and power of Zeus together with the beauty and grace of her mother Mnemosyne.
In ancient art her attributes are the globe and the pointer. She is usually represented with a celestial globe to which she points with a small staff, dressed in a cloak embroidered with stars, her eyes and attention fixed on the heavens. Because of the similarity of their names, she is sometimes confused with Aphrodite Urania, who bears the same "heavenly" epithet for a different reason.