Would you like to pay homage to Terpsichore?

As a group, the Nine Muses get a lot of words: museum (a shrine to the Muses), mosaic (a work of the Muses), music, bemused (devoted to the Muses); although weirdly they seem to have no etymological connection to the verb muse.

As a recap, the nine muses and their roles are: Urania (astronomy), Polyhymnia (hymns), Melpomene (tragic theatre), Thalia (comedic theatre), Clio (history), Calliope (epic poetry), Euterpe (song and elegiac poetry), Terpsichore (dance), and Erato (lyrical poetry).

Anway I digress

The individual muses tend to get less attention, largely because you’d have to remember which was which. The only one that ever sticks in my mind is Terpsichore, the muse of dance. This is largely because whenever I invite a hapless wallflower to skip the heavy fandango with me, , I usually phrase it “Would you like to pay homage to Terpsichore?”

Needless to say, it seldom works !

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